Proof
by shadowdweller25
Summary: Gibbs is back. But not everyone is happy with Tim and Gibbs getting back together. Gibbs has a few things to prove and can he do it before he loses Tim? #8 in McGee's Keeper series
1. Chapter 1

**So I finally wrote the beginning of the story and got it up. Hoorah! Hope you guys enjoy it like the rest of the series so far.**

**Story #8 in the McGee Keeper series and no I do not own anything. Unfortunately. :(**

* * *

**Proof**

CHAPTER 1

Monday morning came and Tony was up in Jenny's office, Tim was over by Ziva's desk, showing her something and just passing time by talking to her. Gibbs was trying to do some work, distract himself.

It wasn't long before Tony walked into the bullpen after leaving the office, answering his cell when it rang.

"Now, call him and leave me alone."

Both Tim and Ziva looked up at Tony's tone. "Problems, Tony?" Ziva asked.

Gibbs answered his desk phone, listening to both conversations, and watched Tony start grabbing his gun and pack. It didn't take a genius to figure out who had been on the phone.

"Wrong number, Ziva."

Tim frowned as he watched Tony. "There a reason you're gearing up?"

"What's my motto, McGee?"

"You'll never date a woman that eats more than you do."

Tony laughed. "Well, yeah. That's true. But; Always be prepared. That batsignal may fly at any moment."

"We're on our way." He hung up after listening to what they had before grabbing his own gear, and made sure he didn't forget his coffee. Couldn't let that happen. "Grab your gear. We're heading out."

Both Tim and Ziva looked at Tony. "How did you know?"

"Well…it's a gift, McGee. I choose not to question it."

They started heading out. "Where we going Boss?" McGee asked.

"Ask DiNozzo. All I got was a wrong number."

* * *

They pulled up to the sight and while Ziva and Tony headed off to the vehicle, taking pictures, he and Tim stayed behind at the truck. He not only wanted to spend more time with Tim, but he also had to save the team from as much awkwardness as possible.

The team was trying to get back in sync but there were factors that were holding them back. The fact that he was back, to Tony not being the boss. And that led to many moments in the past week since he's been back of Tony giving orders before realizing that he wasn't the boss any longer. There was also Gibbs' memory that was still fuzzy, he called Ziva Kate. He mentally groaned just remembering that slip, the look on Tony and Tim's face when he said it. Luckily Ziva hadn't been around to hear him call her their dead teammate.

Gibbs hadn't expected things to just spring back into how things were before he left, but he also wasn't expecting this. And he wasn't just thinking about the team. Tim and Gibbs' relationship was…complicated was the best description. They were just…there.

Which was another factor to the team not in sync yet. The team had a big displeasure to him and Tim getting back together. Abby was ecstatic, grinning at them whenever she saw them standing close. And close meant at least five feet apart. Palmer just nodded and minded his own business. Ducky…he was still mad at Gibbs for leaving in the first place, quitting and leaving everyone behind, especially Tim as he had watched the way the younger man had crumbled. Gibbs himself cringed every time he thought back to that broken look in Tim's eyes when he asked if he was leaving again.

Tony and Ziva, they were the ones who weren't happy about it. Well, they were more caution than displeased. They obviously were going to support Tim in whatever he did, but that didn't stop them from watching, waiting on the sidelines and ready to step forward if anything happened.

So he sent them to the vehicle while he worked with Tim. But now, he was trying to find something and he couldn't find it. Tim spoke up from the doors of the truck, reading off what he had so far.

"Boss, vehicles' registered to a Navy Lieutenant Anne Sullivan. She's a computer programmer for base housing. Reported UA this morning. First time in her career."

"Witnesses?"

"Uh, 911 call. Two motorists reported a man driving her vehicle, a bloody woman screaming in the back. I'm assuming that's our missing Lieutenant."

He frowned, looking in another storage area. Where the hell were they? "Assuming?"

"Well, Fredericksburg PD has descriptions of both the woman and her abductor. They're sending them to NCIS as we speak."

Gibbs sighed as he slumped back. Another thing that wasn't going so well with his return. Couldn't even find his notepads. He needed them. "That's a good job, Tim." Normally he didn't call Tim by his first name at work, but he did now. His head hung, he didn't care showing this kind of feeling of…something…in front of Tim.

"…Can I help you find something, Boss? Maybe…"

"My notepads," he admitted.

He saw Tim out of the corner of his eye lean into the truck and open a drawer, patting it. "Right back here. We reorganized the supplies. Tony felt this way was more efficient."

Gibbs grabbed his notepad, getting out of the truck to look at what Tim had so far. "You don't say." He leaned against Tim as he copied what he had so far, enjoying how Tim didn't pull away.

After that night they made love, things had become tense. Tim treated him like he was ready to disappear right before his eyes, like what little was left of their relationship was a fragile piece of glass and the slightest shift would just shatter it. So they didn't move forward and they didn't move back. They were just…there.

Tim didn't move back into their house, he continued living with Ziva, splitting the rent like he has since he stayed at her place for more than a month. It was hard, he hated it and took to sleeping on the couch to avoid the cold empty bed, but he didn't say anything about it because he knew that they weren't ready to live together again yet. Too much between them.

"Well, you know," Tim said, looking at him and back at the truck, "I could put them back the way it was before you quit." Gibbs looked at him. "Retired."

Not even bothering to say anything about Tim's slip, which he doubted was accidental as he had seen the annoyance and irritation in his eyes when he corrected himself, he went back to the notes. "Well, that depends, McGee. Is it more efficient?"

"Seems to be."

"Then leave 'em where they are."

Tim nodded, and they were silent until Gibbs was done and they headed over to the vehicle, joining Tony and Ziva.

"The traces of blood are all from skin contact. A more serious wound would've left pools of it." She turned to Tony, annoyance in her voice. "Enough criminal investigating for you, Tony?"

He really didn't want to listen to what Tony had to say to that one. So he walked up to them and handed Tony a slip of paper. "Lieutenant Sullivan's address. She lives in Culpeper."

"Take McGee," Tony ordered, holding out the slip of paper to Ziva and Gibbs smirked as he listened. "If you leave now, you can avoid traffic. Anything unusual, you call me." Tony seemed to realize what he did, again, and looked around with an anxious laugh. "I mean, you know, you do…you… Whatever you want them to do, Boss."

Smirking, he jerked his head to motion them to get going. He was slightly amused with the situation but again knew it was not helping them get back into rhythm. Though he was so proud of Tony. He had stepped up to the plate when the time called for it and led the team when he was gone.

Gibbs watched them go before turning his attention to the vehicle. He took a picture of the rear window that had the bloody hand smear. Tim came up behind him after talking on his phone.

"Tow truck should be here any minute now, Boss."

"You find the other shoe yet, McGee?"

Tim frowned, his lips pouting in confusion and Gibbs had to control himself to not flat out kiss the man at a scene. Plus, he wasn't so sure if it would be welcomed as they hadn't kissed since that night at his house. "There was only one in the vehicle."

"You ever see a woman try to walk with one high heel on?" He shook his head as images reminded him. "Not pretty." He started walking away, seeing if he would find anything and did. "Hey, look at this."

There was a blood smear on the concrete and both crouching down near it, Gibbs took a picture of it. "Blood smears on the pavement," he informed. "If she was carried, they'd be drops. And what looks like a strand of nylon thread, maybe from a stocking."

"She could've fallen and scraped her knee."

Nodding and again privately bursting with pride, he ordered, "Mark it," before getting up, went past the tape, and into the grass. Tim caught up with him after marking the first blood smear. "Okay. You're looking for help, which way would you go?"

After he took another photo of the blood, and Tim marked it, Tim looked around where they were. "Well, Waverly's football team was away, so the lot was empty all weekend… She should've headed towards campus, but she didn't; she went in the opposite direction." Gibbs nodded and stood. "She was forced."

"That's good thinking, Tim. Come on." They kept moving, marked and photographed the blood. They continued on till they reached the road. He saw the tire marks but didn't say anything as he photographed the shoe and blood after Tim marked it. "Like I said, the other shoe. Okay, now, tell me where she went."

He watched Tim look around before his eyes landed on the tire marks Gibbs had seen. "There was another car. Judging by these tire tracks, they left in a hurry."

"Match the tires, we might even find out the make and model."

They looked at each other and Gibbs gave a small smile at Tim's words. "Good to have you back, Boss." Yeah, it was good to be back.

* * *

They were back at NCIS and in their bullpen. Ziva was down in Abby's lab while Tony, Tim, and he stood in front of the monitor with Tim in the middle. Tim clicked the clicker and pulled up the sketch. "This is a police sketch artists' rendering of what the witnesses saw late yesterday afternoon. And this is a photo of Lieutenant Sullivan for comparison."

"I'd say that's a pretty good match."

"You think, DiNozzo?" Tim glanced at Tony, feeling for the man. "The driver, McGee."

He pressed the clicker again. "Fredericksburg PD put a BOLO on him last night."

"Any hits?" both Gibbs and Tony asked and Tim glanced between the two. This had been going on for the past week since Gibbs had gotten back, and it was pretty awkward.

Tony apologized. "Sorry. Boss…" he cleared his throat, "continue…if you want to, of course."

If the situation wasn't so awkward and he wasn't in the middle of the two, he would have laughed. But he just continued and answered their question. "No hits yet, but the local LEOs did match the likeness to a mug shot. Justin Farris. Arrested for car theft five years ago. Currently lives with his mother. Claims she hasn't seen him since yesterday."

"Our Lieutenant had around 16 profiles on people at her apartment."

Gibbs moved from side to side as if to get rid of some restlessness and brushed against Tim. Tim nearly leaned back against him, he missed Gibbs' touch just as much as the man missed his, he's seen the looks Gibbs threw his way through the workdays and even the occasional subtle brush and lean against him. But he refrained as they were in the middle of the bullpen. "Without photographs or names. I'm still waiting on the why." Then he looked to Tony.

Tony paused while Tim looked between them. "Me too, Boss. I'm just saying, Farris might be one of them. Our Rosetta Stone, if you will."

"Fine him. That's good work, Tim." Gibbs was about to leave but paused beside Tony. "Not bad either, Tony."

They watched him leave, no doubt headed to Abby's lab. "Is it me or does he seem a little more…?"

"Human?"

Tim cracked a small smile. "Well, I was going to say mellow, but yeah."

"Yeah… I think it's the moustache…lulling us into a false sense of security."

Ugh, he hated that damn moustache. It wasn't Gibbs, it wasn't Jethro. He knew that people could change, he's changed since Jethro left. He was able to hide his emotions more. But that moustache wasn't Jethro and it was one of the things on the list of what was wrong with the team and holding them back.

* * *

Ziva was down in Abby's lab and Abby was laying out the profiles in order. "Well, that's all of them."

"It appears one of them is missing."

Gibbs decided to enter just then and Ziva was sure Abby thought it was Gibbs' "specials powers" that he had that made him show up when she had news. "Missing what?"

"One of the profiles," Abby informed. "Alpha Bravo, one-zero-one-six."

"Targets?"

Ziva continued to look down at the profiles, hoping something would stick out. "The binder they were kept in listed them as potential targets."

"The Alpha Bravo designations. That's how we labeled pre-planned artillery targets in the Corps."

"Maybe she was planning on dropping bombs on them," Abby put out but Ziva did not think so.

"What else was missing from the lieutenant's place?"

Ziva shook her head. "I'm more concerned with what was left, Gibbs. Money, jewelry. It's not your typical burglary."

"This means they knew what they were looking for." He picked up one of the profiles. "What can you tell me about these?"

"She's profiling men," Ziva said. "All information gathered was taken from public records."

"Yeah, I can see that. Why?"

Ziva didn't see Abby's raised hand. "Well, that's an excellent question. I was wondering that myself."

"Abby."

"All of these were printed on the same printer. You want to know how I know?"

"New models embed micro codes in the print." Ziva and Abby stared at the man who was tech illiterate. "It helps I.D. hardware to counterfeit money and documents."

"Wow. Good guess. It also means that the information they represent is on her computer."

"Show me."

"I'd love to." Abby led Gibbs to the smashed computer with Ziva following. She could tell that Abby was frustrated a bit with the damage done to the computer. "But I can't. Not yet. Bad guys smash up real good. I'm still trying to recover the hard drives."

"How long?"

"Did I mention bad guys smash up real good? Like really, really good? Probably days."

"We don't have days, Abs. Get McGee to help you."

Ziva stepped aside when he started to walk away but Abby stopped him by grabbing his arm and pulling him. "Wait. There's more. I ran the fingerprints from the SUV. I matched all of them except three to a partial handprint."

"And?"

"And I can say, with certainty, that the woman in the back of the SUV was—"

"Lieutenant Anne Sullivan," Gibbs interrupted. "McGee already figured it out."

Ziva hid a smile at Abby's surprised look before she grabbed Gibbs again so that he couldn't try to leave again. "Okay, but did he tell you this?" She typed furiously fast. "The partial handprint that I couldn't match was a super-defined index finger. Which means it's not Sullivan's. It's a bad guy's. I'm running it now."

"His name is Justin Farris." And Gibbs started walking away and Ziva smiled as she knew who had found it out. Abby too.

"McGee!"

"Yep," he confirmed before leaving the lab.

"Is it just me or does he seem a little…"

"Snitchy?"

Abby looked at her and she immediately knew she had that one wrong. "That's close enough. It's got to be that damn moustache."

Ziva softly chuckled. Gibbs certainly was different, and the moustache was one of the things.

She was not so thrilled about Tim and Gibbs getting back together, not like Abby was. She had trusted Gibbs to take care of Tim's big loving heart and he had broken it and some. Yes he was not aware of it, but still. He was responsible for the pain that Tim had gone through for the months of his absence.

Thankfully, Tim did not move back in with Gibbs. He was still living with her and they still had their dog piles. And that was one thing that was different about Gibbs. Back then, he would have never let it happen, but last Thursday, Tim had come to them suggesting that he invite Gibbs. Gibbs had to see how close the team had gotten while he had been away and how they had helped him. So they agreed and surprisingly when they followed them to bed, he had just raised an eyebrow before lying down and holding Tim.

The next morning had been interesting and Tony had been lucky to wake before Gibbs or he would have received a very hard head-slap.

**_~Flashback~_**

_Ziva woke with a snort, stretching and yawning as her head continued to rest on Abby's stomach. She stretched all the way down to her toes and fingers, and she froze when she felt her fingers brush others in Tony's hair. Looking, she saw that Gibbs' hand also was in Tony's hair. _

_Her eyes narrowed at Gibbs as he was tucked behind Tim, his head in his hair, his arm around his waist, but his hand in Tony's hair. Tim and Gibbs were the only two that were still in the position they started out in, mostly due to the grip Gibbs had on Tim, but even so…Gibbs' hand was in Tony's hair. _

_She looked to see how the rest of them moved, she thought Tony was so lucky that Gibbs wasn't awake. Tony's read rest on Tim's thigh like a pillow and one arm was thrown over both Tim and Gibbs' thighs as if to hold them still while the other was reached over and his hand was resting on Abby's hip._

_Deciding to think about it later, she whispered quietly, "Abby, time to get up."_

_"Five more minutes."_

_Ziva smirked at the Goth's grumble. "Now Abby."_

_"Fine," she sighed. She didn't move for a few seconds before she quietly giggled. "Um, I can't exactly get up with Tim on my hand and Tony holding my hip."_

_Ziva jostled Tony who grumbled and tried to bury his face more into Tim's thigh. "Go away."_

_"Time to get up."_

_"Don't wanna."_

_"Well, you're lying on McGee, so I'd get up before Gibbs does."_

_Tony huffed. "Fine," he whispered but didn't get up. They watched his brows furrow as he took on an adorable confused look. "Ziva, I can't get up with your hand in my hair."_

_Both girls chuckled before Ziva softly told Tony, "My hand isn't in your hair."_

_"…Abby?"_

_"Nope."_

_"…McGee?" And they giggled at how worried and high his voice got._

_"Nope."_

_"…Oh." _

_They girls continued to giggle, trying to cover it up, and it wasn't long before Gibbs' hand slid from Tony's hair and smoothly slid around Tim. Tony quickly got up before Gibbs' hand decided to go back to his head and both Ziva and Abby followed. The three stood there and watched at how Tim instinctively turned into Gibbs, who easily wrapped his own arms around him. _

_Gibbs tightened his arms around Tim and seemed to fall deeper into sleep. Abby beamed while Tony and Ziva grudgingly admitted that they looked peaceful for the first time since Boss was back, but that didn't mean they still thought it was such a great idea._

_**~End Flashback~**_

* * *

Tim wasn't one to usually go looking through things that he had no business looking through, especially when they had a case. But this was really not his fault. Sure, he opened the file and looked, but it popped up in the first place.

When Director Shepard started, Gibbs had told him to monitor things, mainly the team's files. Mostly to make sure that they were ready in case the woman tried to shake things up and split them up. So…really, it was Gibbs fault.

But he had been sitting at his desk running over a few things when a screen popped up to show that Tony's file had been opened and updated. He had held out for a good few minutes before the curiosity got the better of him and he opened Tony's file to see what was wrong. Plus, he wanted to know if something was wrong with his friend.

Then he saw it.

He was up for a promotion to lead his own team in Spain.

Maybe it was a mistake. No, he read it a few times before he closed it and slumped in his seat. Tony couldn't leave. Sure, he wanted his friend to succeed in his career; he deserved it, especially after the last few months. But to lead his own team, and in Spain? Without Tim there to have his six and Ziva to have his?

What the hell!

The anger came swift and strong. Why didn't Tony say anything? Did he already take it because he didn't want to work under Gibbs and was just buying his time? Waiting for the moment to tell them? Why would Tony do that?

He pushed his chair back fast and stalked to the bathroom, glad none of his team was around to see him. Tim wasn't in the mood to answer questions and reveal what Tony planned to do. The bastard! Leaving him, after everything. Leaving him, Abby, and Ziva. What kind of friend was that?

Tim's never felt so…betrayed. Needing to cool down and clear his head, he splashed some cool water on his face.

His brother. His big brother was going to leave him, just like Gibbs did. How much more loss could he take?

"McGee?"

"Yeah?" he grunted as he grabbed a paper towel to dry his face. To be honest, he wasn't really in the mood for Gibbs. His emotions were all over the place and he didn't want to talk to the man who was partly responsible for it. Most of him was scared to do anything with the relationship between Gibbs and him, but a small part of him was furious with the man. So furious he wanted to throw a punch at him.

"You alright? You've been in here a while."

Balling the paper, he threw it away. "I can't take a bathroom break?"

Gibbs raised an eyebrow at his tone and Tim nearly scowled. "Yeah, but not so long that people start to think you fell in." Jerking his head, he started to pass Gibbs, but Gibbs grabbed his arm. "Tim."

"I have work to do." And without looking back he headed back to his desk to see Tony on the phone at his own desk.

"I want agents knocking on the door of anyone," he started snapping at Tim and he didn't listen as his mind was elsewhere, "who met, knows or sneezed on Farris in the last year, Mollvaney. Probie!" Tony hissed, throwing a paperball to get his attention and Tim bristled at the name. "I need you over here." Tim continued to ignore him and Tony went back to his phone call. "Well, if they find anything, make sure that you call Gibbs, not me. Yes the moustache is real." He then hung up the phone. "You got a hearing problem?"

Tim finally looked at Tony and it pained him to think that Tony wouldn't be working there longer. And that just angered him more. "Oh, I'm sorry. Were you talking to me?"

"There's no one else in the squad room." Tony stood from his desk and walked over to Tim's.

"Well, I thought I heard you say "Probie." And since Agent Lee has been reassigned to the legal department, I wasn't exactly sure who you were referring to."

He laughed and Tim felt his anger rise. "I get it. You don't like being called Probie anymore?"

"Things change."

"Yes, I know. I used to be team leader…Pr-oh-ho-ho-bie."

Tim looked back up at Tony and wanted to get back at him for hurting him. "Temporary team leader. And that was only because Gibbs quit."

"…You don't' think I rate my own team?"

"Wouldn't be here now if you did, would you, DiNozzo?" No, he'd be in Spain. The country left a bitter taste in his mind just thinking it.

Tony stared at him for a few silent seconds where Tim felt his anger deflate before he stood and gave a humorless laugh. "Yeah. Maybe you're right." He started to walk away and Tim felt like a complete bastard. Why the hell did he hurt his friend? "If Gibbs asks, tell him I went out for coffee."

Tim sighed. "Tony, I didn't…" But Tony just continued on.

Tim looked down in shame at hurting his friend, his big brother, and nearly jumped when he felt Gibbs come up beside him and sit on the edge of his desk. "Tim…how long have I been an NCIS Special agent?"

"Almost 16 years."

"Want to take a wild guess what my first partner still calls me?"

He didn't have to. Tim had been there in the hospital after the explosion when Mike had come to see Gibbs. And he had heard him call Gibbs "Probie."

Tim owed Tony a huge apology.

* * *

Gibbs made his way to Autopsy after his interview with the dirtbag who turned himself in and thought he hadn't done anything wrong by leaving Lieutenant Anne Sullivan alone to die. He entered Autopsy to see Ducky speaking to a picture.

"Though you only talked to bodies."

"A lot has changed since you quit." Gibbs wanted to sigh, but he remained silent. "Fortunately, one doesn't need a body for a psychological autopsy—which is what I'm doing here on our missing Lieutenant."

He fidgeted a bit, not really knowing how to feel about what he had heard. "I heard you passed your test."

Ducky glanced at him. "Yes. The graduation ceremony was very rewarding. All my friends were there."

And didn't that hurt to hear. He stared at Ducky. "What do you got?"

"Um, well, a sampling of the Lieutenant's DVD collection—_Under the Tuscan Sun, Sabrina, Ghost, Fried Green Tomatoes. _What Tony would classify as chick flicks." He walked around to the other side of the table to point to the books. "Yet they contrast vividly with her choice in literature. Like our Timothy," _'My Timothy.'_ "she's quite the fan of the detective and the spy genres. A dissonance made even more interesting by these," he lifted the clipboard, "her fitness reports. They reveal a brilliant tactical mind with little tolerance for failure. One who is highly driven. She's well traveled, but notice this."

Gibbs looked down at the pictures of all the places she's been. "Alone," he observed.

"Yes. I imagine you know something about that."

Gibbs lifted his head to look at his friend. If he was even still his friend because that was one hell of a low blow. He came back and was trying to fix things, especially with Tim. "Are you going somewhere with this, _Doctor_?"

"…Yes. This woman is a highly motivated loner with an odd desire for secrecy." Ducky picked up a few profiles still in their evidence bag. "These profiles that she keeps may indicate a need to control her environment and the people in it."

"But you don't know who they are."

"Well, this isn't an exact science."

The intercom beeped before he could say anything. "Gibbs! Gibbs! Gibbs! Over here! Gibbs!" Waving at Abby as he walked over to be closer to the camera and to see her better. "Your new golden boy McGee, he was wrong. The partial handprint—"

Tony pushed Abby aside to interrupt. "Isn't Farris', Boss."

"Whose is it?"

"Well—"

This time Abby pushed Tony aside to interrupt. "That we don't know yet. But what that means is that—"

"Somebody else was there," Gibbs cut in.

* * *

The end of the day came and it was really late as they didn't really want to leave with a missing Lieutenant out there somewhere. Though, Tim didn't leave, neither did Abby. They were going to work on going through Lieutenant Sullivan's computer and files. It was going to be a long night.

But Tim didn't want Tony leaving after his comment. So he approached Tony's desk. "Hey Tony."

"Yeah McGee?"

Tim felt more shame at the fact that Tony wouldn't look at him. "I want to apologize."

But Tony waved him off. "Don't worry about it."

"No Tony." He grabbed Tony's shoulder and sat at the edge of his desk, leaning down to be level with him. "I was wrong. You've been there for me these past few months, and what I said was wrong. I was angry, and…it still doesn't excuse what I said."

Tony leaned back in his seat and watched him, and just when Tim was ready to squirm, Tony said, "It's alright." Tim sighed in relief. "What were you angry about? Was it Gibbs?" he asked with a whisper and leaning close.

Warmth filled him at Tony's worry and he shook his head. "No. Well, a part since I had seen him before what happened. But it was…" He shook his head again.

"Come on McGee. Tell me."

He looked at Tony. "I know."

"You know what?"

"…About your promotion."

Tony softly cursed. "How?"

"Remember when Director Shepard first started?" Tony nodded. "Well, Gibbs asked me to do something, and I guess I forgot to end it, so the change in your file popped up on my screen."

"…Tim." He raised his head at his first name. "Jenny asked me, but I haven't given her an answer yet."

"Oh."

Tony grinned easily and Tim didn't have to guess that it was due to his own relieved tone. Clearing his throat, he got up from Tony's desk and went back to his own so he could grab his things before going down to Abby's lad. He stopped though before he left the bullpen.

"Oh and Tony." Tony looked up. "I think you would do great with your own team."

Tony smiled. "Thanks…Probie."

* * *

**A/N: PLEASE REVIEW! They are appreciated. **


	2. Chapter 2

**Thank you to everyone who has alert, favorite, and reviewed the story so far. It was a great response. Again, thank you.**

* * *

CHAPTER 2

Tony was not all that happy the following morning and he knew Ziva wasn't doing any better when he got into work. They hadn't been able to do their Monday night dog pile due to Abby and McGee staying late at work and Tony hadn't wanted to press his luck with a two man dog pile. He tended to do some grabbing in his sleep and he refused to be let that happen without Abby and McGee there to distract Ziva while he made a run for the shower.

He was used to the dog piles and now felt off without one, and as he showed up to work to see Ziva stretching—a pleasing sight—he could automatically tell she hadn't had the best of sleep either. Tony vaguely wondered if she had eaten as he had to do with a breakfast burrito, oppose to the usual breakfast the team had the morning after their dog pile and before work.

At least they had had a small take-out dinner together the previous night before he headed home.

"Tony," Ziva greeted and waved him over to the screen. "Farris claims he didn't know Lieutenant Sullivan was in the vehicle when he stole it. When she started screaming he dumped it here with her still in it." She pointed to the screen where a map was up and destination to and from was highlighted. "Which means whoever kidnapped her must have followed Farris to get the Lieutenant back."

"If he's telling the truth—it still doesn't explain why she was profiling people."

"Blackmail, espionage, assassination." Tony jerked when she clicked the clicker at his face before stretching forward. And call him a pig, but he checked her ass out.

"All good reasons why…someone would want to make her disappear." He knew she could kill him with a paperclip eighteen different ways, but he didn't care at the moment. Ziva was sexy and her ass was right there.

"We could be missing something."

"Believe me, not from this angle."

He quickly looked at the screen—with probably more interest than required—when Ziva straightened and looked at him. "She could be a covert operative."

"She's a Navy computer geek who worked on software for base housing. According to her coworkers, she's a female version of McGee." And no offense to his little brother, but no way could Tim pull off being a spy.

"Being a geek makes a good cover."

Gibbs decided to show up at that moment with a coffee and Caf-Pow! "Cover for what?"

"We're still trying to figure that out, Boss."

"You pull security tapes from the gas station?" he asked as he walked to his desk.

They both turned to face him as Ziva answered, "There weren't any—the system's been broken for a month."

"Tire marks from the lot check out Farris' story—they're a match for a factory-standard Honda Accord."

"Let's hope that Abby and McGee had better luck—come on."

Ziva followed Gibbs and Tony regretfully looked at his breakfast before throwing it away and catching up with the others. It didn't take long for them to get down to the lab to find Abby asleep with her head propped up on her hands and McGee on his folded arms.

"I wouldn't call this luck."

They watched Gibbs lean close to Abby's ear and softly talk to her. "Your computer's on fire."

"McGee, my baby's French-frying!" Tony nearly laughed as McGee snapped awake and both geeks started typing frantically.

"Checking internal core temperature."

Slowly the typing slowed down and both McGee and Abby blinked into consciousness and turned to glare at Gibbs who smirked. Abby's glare was the hardest though as it was known not to mess with her and her babies. Tony grinned.

"That is so not funny, Gibbs."

"We must have nodded off."

Ziva and Tony shared a smile. Tony wouldn't admit it out loud, but McGee looked adorable with the way he pouted at being woken. He was like a sleepy toddler who woke up too soon from his nap. Made him want to hug his little Probie, especially after the way he apologized for his comment the day before.

"Tell me that you two have something," Gibbs demanded.

"We have something; just don't know what it is." Abby brought up what looked like a timetable on the screen and both Gibbs and Ziva walked over to look at it closer.

"Looks like a timetable for an operation."

"The problem is, the events on the axis are encrypted."

"We've been trying to crack it all night," Tim admitted with a small yawn.

"Well, try harder, McGee." Tony walked over to join Gibbs and Ziva. "Chances of finding her alive drop to almost zero after 48 hours." Damn, he did it again. "Sorry. I'm sure you knew that, Boss."

"Don't apologize, DiNozzo."

"Right. Sign of weakness."

"Not to mention annoying."

Tony threw a glare Ziva's way before Abby spoke.

"We were able to pull some programs off our directory. This is the only one that stands out. MorphPro." A program came to the screen with the Lieutenant's face on. "It's super-high-end imaging software. It's unusual, because it retails for over $5,000."

He frowned. "Big bucks on a lieutenant's salary."

"What's it for?"

"Morphing human features. Um, we pulled some test runs out of her cache."

They watched the face of Lieutenant Anne Sullivan age a few years, graying hair and wrinkles appearing.

Tony smiled. "Ah, yeah, this like the end of _Saving Private Ryan_, you know, where Matt Damon morphs into his older self. Anybody else get head-faked by that? 'Cause Tom Hanks was who I thought…" Gibbs stared at him and he clamped his mouth shut while Ziva pointed at the screen.

"I've seen software like this before, Abby. Mossad used earlier versions to age Nazi war criminals. It was a great asset to hunting them down."

Gibbs walked over to Abby. "So basically, what you're saying to me is, we have nothing."

Tony smiled at the look Abby gave. "Gibbs! Ziva's talking about Nazis. I wouldn't exactly call Nazis nothing."

"Abby…"

"We have nothing. Until we crack her encryptions."

"You mean if," Tim cut in. "It's high-level, it's extremely sophisticated."

Ducky decided to show up with his usual cup of tea. The man really liked his tea. "Would her password help?"

"Well, yeah, Ducky, but we don't have it."

"Yeah, well, I just spent a long night in our lieutenant's head. I may be able to offer some suggestions. Try "Coral Gables."" Tim typed but was denied. "Uh, "Fiddlers green."" Again he tried and denied. ""Hampton Inn."" Third time wasn't a charm.

Gibbs started heading out. "Nice try. Tony, Ziva, with me."

""Spanish Rose.""

They all paused at the ding that went off when he was granted access. "Whoa!"

"We're in. Ducky, that was…"

"Mind-blowingly amazing," Abby grinned.

Ducky grinned. "It's more of an art than a science." He headed over to the bigger screen as Probie cleared the timeline to be readable. "Oh. Lieutenant Sullivan was indeed into targeting people. She was using all her military knowledge and skills to find a husband."

"Well, it looks like she found herself a psycho instead…Dr. Mallard."

* * *

"Now that we have access to her files, we can see she was using MorphPro to predict the appearance of her adult offspring." Tim went through all the potentials that Sullivan did, Tony and Ziva beside him to see, though Tony didn't stay long.

"Creepy." He walked back to his desk. "No wonder she couldn't find a husband."

Tim paused. "You know, choosing someone to spend the rest of your life with is not easy." He was a prime example of that. "Who wouldn't want to know all the facts before deciding?"

"Isn't that what dating's all about?"

"Yeah," and didn't Tony look suddenly serious as he looked at him, "you should try that sometime, McGee."

Tim frowned and glanced at Ziva before looking at Tony again. "What?"

"You. Should. Date."

He blinked. "But…I'm seeing Gibbs."

"Barely, and I didn't say see someone else."

"Though I am not against the idea," Ziva cut in from her position beside him.

Tony rolled his eyes. "Anyway, you should date Gibbs again. If he's serious about staying and with you, he needs to do this."

It wasn't a bad idea, but he didn't want to think about it at the moment. So, he changed the subject. "I wonder would happen if you two hooked up." Since they were all in his relationship. He brought up the program on the big screen and their photos before combining them. Ziva and Tony stood to watch. "Guys, meet your love child."

It was an…interesting looking child to say the least. Grouchy, like Tony, so yeah, it definitely took after Tony. The two looked at each other before they requested, "Do Gibbs and the director."

Only pausing for a second, it was a legitimate curious request as everyone knew the two used to be lovers. So pulling up the photos, he combined them and the female that was the result was quite beautiful. Tim stared at the photo on his computer.

"Hmm," Ziva hummed, "now, that's not a bad combination."

"I'd date her."

Tim chuckled—_'Of course Tony would._'—and froze at Ziva's next request. "How about you and Gibbs?"

"Uh…"

"Just for fun."

"Yeah, I'm sure it wouldn't even turn out too good, Probie, with you both being guys."

Tony and Ziva both continued to stare at him and blushing up a storm, and having no idea why he was complying, he switched Director Shepard's picture out with his own and with a deep breath, pressed enter.

The morph seemed to go slow motion and when it finished, a very handsome man with Jethro's strong face, Tim's soft mouth with a hint of a smirk, and eyes of bright blue green stared back at them. _'Well then.'_

"Wow," Ziva whispered. "Very…very handsome."

"Yeah. Even with Gibbs as his father, and being straight, I'd date him."

Gibbs walked into the bullpen with Abby trailing behind him. "Never more than once, DiNozzo."

"Aww," Abby cooed, "you and McGee make nice Gibblets, Gibbs."

Tim felt his face get hotter when Gibbs looked at the picture before looking at him, heat, love, lust, and more all in a single look. He quickly took down the picture as Gibbs walked over and his breath hitched when those blue eyes bored into him before his lips half smirked and he handed over a piece of paper. Fingers brushing.

"McGee, pull up that Web site-while you three were playing, Abby found out where our lieutenant was the day she was abducted."

He pulled up the site and it was a site for speed dating.

"Speed dating?"

Abby faced them to explain. "There was an e-mail invitation on her computer. It's a three-day event, and she went missing after the first day."

"Gas station where Farris stole her SUV was two blocks from the hotel hosting it."

"So she wasn't screaming about being singled out by a _guy_."

"She was talking about this," Ziva stated.

"I've heard of VSO," Tim admitted. "Apparently, they have an 85% success rate."

Ziva turned to look up at him. "For what?"

"For marriages."

Gibbs looked at him. "What about kidnappings, McGee?"

"…I will work on getting a list of clients attending the event."

Abby shook her head. "I tried it—their lawyers says that Virginia's Singled Out is a confidential service, so they keep their client list under lock and key."

"Warrant. On it, Boss." Tony started to head back to his desk to make a call but was stopped by Gibbs.

"Not enough time; it ends tonight."

"I can't tell you who is there, but I can tell you that it's the same guys from Sunday night. You want to know how I know?"

A voice from behind them cut in and they turned around. Tim softly gasped as he saw Damon standing there as he hadn't seen Damon since the last case they had because of a job that came up. "VSO is designed to introduce successful men to a wide assortment of eligible women. Each night brings the promise of romance and a chance of finding your soul mate." Tim knew he wasn't the only one to look at him oddly for knowing that. "My sister tried getting me to go and constantly informed me of the facts." He shrugged before giving a small wave. "Hey guys."

Abby laughed and pulled their attention back to her though Tim couldn't help glancing back at Damon who smiled. "So, the men remain the same, but the women chance every night."

"We're doing this the old-fashioned way," Gibbs informed, throwing Damon a look before talking to Ziva. "So, Ziva, you still think being a geek makes for a good cover?"

Ziva smiled. "Absolutely."

"Good. Head on down to Abby's lab."

"Come on Ziva," Abby smiled while grabbing Ziva's hand and dragging her off to the elevator. "It'll be fun."

Ziva looked back at them before disappearing with Abby still talking a mile a minute.

Tim turned back to Damon who was closer than he had been before and was smiling. He couldn't help that he took a small step back, instinct with having someone so close. "Hey Damon."

"Hello Tim."

A small blush came to him at the way Damon's eyes traveled up and down his body. He tried to distract himself and saw that both Gibbs and Tony were watching them; Tony cheekily smiling and Gibbs' face blank. But not so blank that Tim could see the irritation at Damon being back. Grabbing Damon's elbow, he led him away from the bullpen and to the large windows.

Before he could, Damon spoke. "How are you Tim?"

"I'm doing fine. You?"

He shrugged. "Good. Just got back from our job and thought I'd stop by and say hi."

"Well, we have a case."

"Yeah," he smiled and Tim felt a smile tugging at his own lips, "I saw. Listen, would you like to go out to dinner when you finish the case?"

"Oh." He glanced back to see Gibbs still watching them, his hands fisted by his side.

Damon's hand came up and he gently cupped his face to pull his face back to him, to look at him. "Hey. It's just dinner. Though I really want it to be a date, we can just go as friends."

Nibbling on his lip in thought, he finally nodded his head after a while. "Sure. I'd love to."

* * *

**A/N: Uh oh! Damon's back! **

**Hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving!**

**PLEASE REVIEW! They're appreciated. **


	3. Chapter 3

**Again thank you for the response; alerts, favorites, and reviews. I love the response and reviews, and thank you.**

* * *

CHAPTER 3

Tim made his way down to Abby's lab, trying not to think about how he just agreed to a dinner with Damon. And the smile that Damon gave him for agreeing. It had been bright and had his stomach flutter a bit when aimed his way. After Damon had left, Tim had made a hasty retreat to the elevator before Gibbs could get to him.

Call him a coward, but he was not ready for that kind of conversation.

He walked into Abby's lab and didn't see either woman so he went past the second set of doors and paused when he saw Ziva with Ducky and Abby, Abby fixing her hair. Ziva looked…not like Ziva.

Walking over to Ducky, he continued to stare at Ziva. "You sure about this?" he asked nervously.

"Oh, absolutely." He held his hands out as if to frame her from bottom to top. "We have created an image of Lieutenant Sullivan's type. Hopefully, the similarities will trigger a visceral response in our kidnapper."

Ziva's head jerked when Abby tried to put in a pin and Tim could tell she was a bit uncomfortable. "Do you really think he'll come back for another woman, Ducky?"

"No, no, no, no—I think he'll come back to avoid suspicion. I doubt you'll be in any kind of danger."

Figuring to get them moving and not let Ziva dwell on her look, he held up the glasses he set up for her. "Video surveillance glasses."

As she put them on, Gibbs and Tony came in, Tony hopping around like an eager puppy. "Good work, McGee!"

Tim softly cleared his throat to not laugh when Ziva looked at herself in the mirror Abby held up. Wouldn't do well to irritate an assassin. "I look like a dork."

"Yeah," Tony grinned, obviously not caring that Ziva could kill him eighteen different ways with a paperclip, "that's the point."

"This is a portable fingerprint scanner—it's wireless." Abby held the device to show it while Tim explained.

"We'll know within a matter of seconds if the prints you collect match our mystery print from the SUV."

"All you have to do is get each dater to press his right index finger here."

"Really." Ziva stared at Abby like she was crazy. "Is that all, Abby? How do you suggest I do _that_?"

"Improvise," Gibbs informed. "You'll figure it out."

"Our priority is I.D.'ing the members and finding out which one drives a silver Honda Accord."

"Question?"

"Uh, just one." Ziva pushed up the glasses and Tim had to bite his lip so he didn't smile at how adorable and uncomfortable she looked. "Can anyone please explain what…speed dating is?"

Oh yeah, this was going to be fun.

* * *

Tim was left behind with Gibbs as Tony and Ziva headed to the hotel. They were in MTAC, headphones on so they could communicate with both agents. While Gibbs watched through the video coming from Ziva's glasses, Tim took to running the prints received from the reader and trying to get them to match, not to mention get information on each speed dater. He was going to be busy, which was great since Gibbs couldn't try to discuss what happened earlier with Damon.

That and the fact both Tony and Ziva could hear and there was a technician in MTAC monitoring. There was always one in.

Ziva was at her own table, the other women as well, and Ziva started speaking after the emcee informed how much longer it would be.

"90-second dates? I thought you were kidding me, Gibbs."

"You'll do fine, Ziva. I had marriages shorter than that."

"I'm starting to understand why."

Tim smirked while Gibbs ignored it.

"Tony, sit-rep."

"No silver Accord in the parking structure. Our girl is looking a little nervous now." It wasn't hard to hear the smile in Tony's voice. "I think we found her kryptonite. Our big bad spy doesn't do geek."

"Did he just say "Greek"?"

"How about both of you…shut up."

The emcee's voice carried through. "Okay, daters, we got a really full house tonight, so please remember, be courteous to each other, and move at the sound of the chime—please begin now." He hit the chime and a man came onto the screen in front of Ziva.

"Hey, Natalie. I'm Larry."

"Hi. Uh, last name?"

Tim chuckled. Yeah, this was going to be fun.

"Uh, West. Uh, banker by trade, but my passion happens to be astronomy. Um, wh-why don't you tell me a little bit about yourself."

"I like…computers."

"Mm-hmm."

"And…that stuff…you do with the yarn."

Tim turned back to look at Gibbs who raised an eyebrow before shaking his head. "She's a geek, not a granny."

"Knitting?" Larry asked.

"Yes!" She agreed. "That's it."

"Has anyone ever told you that you're very attractive, Natalie?"

"My brother."

Tony's small laugh came through while Tim smacked his forehead. "For crying out loud."

"That's…interesting."

"Get his prints, Ziva," Gibbs ordered.

They saw Ziva's hand go out to grab Larry's. "You know, I feel…"

"Unit face is up. Just getting his print now," Tim informed.

"…with you, Gary."

"Larry."

"Oh."

"What do you got in your hand there?"

"I-It's called a mood scanner. See?"

"Oh."

"Let's me know if you're in the mood."

"Oh, very New Age—I like that."

They both chuckled.

"There's something about your eyes."

"I get that a lot. It's allergies."

"Oh. Uh, what kind of car do you drive?"

Tim rolled his eyes as the prints continued to scan and run. If this was how Ziva really was on a date…he was going to have to have a talk with her. Or let Tony do it.

"Does it really matter?"

"Well," she whispered low and sultry, "cars get me extremely _hot_…Larry."

"I drive…a Porch."

"You mean a Porsche."

"Yeah. It's in the shop."

"That's a nice…car."

The prints came out negative. "We're oh for one. 24 more guys to go, guys."

"He's clean, Ziva," Gibbs let know as the chime rang for the date to end and for the men to move.

"Yeah, well, you didn't have to smell him, Gibbs."

"And turn up the charm, Ziva," Tim cut in. "You're a geek, not mentally deranged. I mean, seriously."

Ziva was about to say something, but the next man sat down and on they went. Man after man went by and both Gibbs and Tim couldn't do anything but laugh as Ziva tried to turn up the charm, but some of the guys didn't help, she was uncomfortable and unfamiliar with the whole 90 second dates scenario, and her excuses to holding their hand to get their print was both funny and just great improvisation.

As Ziva continued on with her dates, Tim listened in as Gibbs listened to Tony's conversation with the bartender on when Lieutenant was last there and who with. Fortunately it was with the man Ziva was with now, but unfortunately the guy wouldn't let her touch his hand. He kept going on and on about glass and used his hands to demonstrate.

"I need a print on this guy. And you are out of time Ziva."

"Really?" Ziva asked, sounding intrigued which Tim knew she wasn't.

"Oh, yeah. I think there's something spiritual about glass. Hot molten silicate, shaping it…"

"You know," she grabbed his hand with her assassin quickness and tried to get a print, "I-I feel a…an attraction between us, Calvin."

"Really?"

Tim cursed as Calvin pulled his hand away, but at least had his name and started searching.

"Yes, something animal, you know? Something, uh, primal."

"Uh…okay."

"And time," the emcee announced.

Tim let Gibbs know about how the print didn't scan fully.

"Ziva, we still need his print."

His computer finally pulled up the guy's information. "We did get a hit on his name. Calvin Hooper reported silver Honda Accord stolen Sunday night in Fairfax. Could have been the one following Farris."

"Tony, take him down, quietly."

"Intercepting now, Boss."

They watched as Ziva stood and walked over to the next table and grabbed Calvin's hand, pulling him up and walking back. "Would you like to get a bite to eat, Calvin?"

"Uh…you mean…together?"

"Of course."

"Uh…well, sure. I'd love to."

"Or let's just skip the dinner and go straight for dessert."

Tim quickly commanded the now complete print to run as Calvin chuckled. "You know, this kind of thing never happens to me."

"Oh!"

He couldn't see what the man was doing, but it obviously wasn't something good and Tim quickly said, "Don't kill him," while Tony approached them.

"Calvin Hooper?"

"Yes?"

"Remove your hand or I will rip your arm off and beat you to death with it."

Calvin's eyes went wide. "Um…"

Tim stared at his computer and slumped. "It's not a match."

"What?" Gibbs walked over and saw for himself. "Run it again."

"Boss, he's not our guy."

* * *

"He grabbed my ass."

Tim immediately regretted asking her what Calvin had done to get her so riled up. Gibbs, and Director Shepard for some reason, was in the observation room waiting while they stood out in the hallway. Tim was giving them some information on Hooper. "Well, I'm proud of you."

"Why?" She frowned.

"You didn't kill him."

She pouted and Tim smiled. "I wanted to, but you told me not to."

"Yeah, she listens to you, but if I told her not to she would have done it."

Shaking his head at Tony's own pout, he shooed them away. "Go. You have Calvin waiting in interrogation room one. And Ziva," he called before she could go into the room, "don't kill him."

She glared with a bit of a pout. "Fine." And with that, they walked into the interrogation room while he headed back to the bullpen.

* * *

Tony refrained from rolling his eyes. They'd been over this already. "You're not under arrest,  
Calvin."

"Yet."

Tony glanced at Ziva and was a bit thankful for Tim's order before starting their interrogation because he was sure she would have killed Calvin with his own glasses if she could. "We just want to clear up a few things."

"No one read me my Miranda rights."

Tony chuckled. "That's because you're not under arrest."

"Yet."

"Ziva!"

"…Sorry."

Tony motioned for Ziva to join him in the corner. "You have really got to calm the hell down Ziva."

"He grabbed my ass Tony."

"So have I, in the dog pile." The glare he received reminded him that he let's his mouth talk without thinking way too often. "Just…remember what McGee said and don't kill the guy."

"Fine."

They left the corner and Ziva went back to her seat across the table. "So you reported your car stolen Sunday night," Tony stated.

"Yes. Is that some kind of crime?"

"No. Of course not. However," he said with a look, "filing a false police report…"

"Crime!"

Both Calvin and Tony looked at Ziva and Tony mouthed McGee's name to remind her. Calvin didn't see but he did speak.

"I think I want a lawyer now."

"What part of "you're not under arrest" don't you get, Calvin?"

"So I…I'm free to go here at any time?"

He slipped on his easy grin—he had a name for a few of his grins. "Sure." Calvin began to get up and Tony pulled him back down by his shoulder. "Unless we charge you with a crime. See, the thing is, Cal… Can I call you Cal?" He walked over to the other corner to grab the extra chair and sat next to Ziva. "Arresting you means more paperwork for me. So…what I need from you is the truth."

"But my car really was stolen."

"Which sucks for you. Unfortunately, you reported it stolen from your home in Fairfax."

"Speed dating is a three-day event. You stayed at the Belmar every night. You paid cash up front."

"Which was wise, considering that you're married and attending a speed dating service." _'Thank you, Probie, for that little piece of information._'

Ziva pulled out her cell. "I'm calling his wife."

Never get on the woman's bad side.

"No wait! Please. It wasn't stolen from my house, but you can't…I…She…She'll find out. My wife is at her sister's place in Jersey. They just had a baby."

"Oh." Having a baby was great news, but seeing the look Ziva threw his way, he put back on his serious face.

"I've been married 18 years now. I was just trying to have a little fun."

Wouldn't they all? "Yeah. What we need to know is where and when, Cal."

"The first day of the event, I struck out."

"Shocking."

It was Tony's turn to throw Ziva a look before they looked back to Hooper who continued.

"So I drove over to the Texaco station around 6:00 to get some cigarettes and wine, and I'm in the store maybe a minute when I-I look out, and this guy is driving away in my car."

"Please describe him."

"White, about your height. He was wearing a Chicago Cubs hat. And, really, you know, I just got a glimpse of him."

"Not good enough. You grabbed my ass, Calvin." Tony winced for Calvin's sake, and watched her begin dialing. Tim did order her not to kill the guy, but nothing about making his life hell.

"No! Hold on! Hold on! Just a second. Um… Just gi-gi-gi-give me a second. Just a second. Uh… When I drove up, he, uh…he was standing out front. And he…he was on the pay phone. And I swear, that's all I can remember."

Tony looked at the mirror and knew Boss was making a call.

* * *

They made it to the warehouse in Fredericksburg after tracing the call made from the payphone and quickly drew their weapons. It had already been too long and their chances of finding the lieutenant alive were quickly dwindling down.

They quickly filed in and searched the place, but unfortunately didn't find anyone there, Sullivan included.

"Clear. No one's here, Boss."

Ziva was in a small fenced area with a chair and went through a purse and wallet. "The lieutenant was here. It's her purse. Military I.D. is still inside."

"They knew we were coming."

"Maybe not, Boss." Tony motioned to Gibbs and the rest of them. "You definitely need to check this out." They walked towards the backroom that had a dry-erase board and more. "Looks like a professional crew. Detailed itineraries, blueprints, and a scale model."

Ziva looked at the blueprints. "It's for the Belmar Plaza Hotel."

"They planning a heist?"

"Yeah, McGee. A big one. Coin convention and auction. They're planning on hitting the hotel's vault."

"Does it say how?"

Gibbs unzipped a rack and pulled out the staff uniform. "From inside. They're working the place."

Okay, he understood that, but not where the lieutenant fell into all of this. "What does the lieutenant have to do with this?"

"She was dating one of them." Ziva held up a piece of paper. "Alpha Bravo, one-zero-one-six. The missing profile. It says here he's a hotel bartender that lied to her about his entire past."

"She ran a background check on his cover."

"I can only imagine he panicked when she started questioning him about it."

"We need to get to the hotel before they hit the vault."

Gibbs headed for the door. "They started four minutes ago. Come on."

* * *

They got the crew members and had them waiting for questioning. All they had to do was get the leader who was in the back of the laundry truck. Tony really wasn't all that comfortable with Ziva hiding in the laundry cart, and he could tell Tim wasn't either, but they kept their mouths shut and let her do what was needed to get Lieutenant Sullivan out safe and their guy.

Once they had the go ahead by Ziva, they and the cops pulled up and let him know that they had him surrounded and all three of them, Gibbs, Tim, and Tony, let out a breath when the back of the truck opened and they saw Ziva standing with her gun pointed at their guy and Lieutenant Sullivan by her side. Tony took the guy and quickly handcuffed him, lead him to the car, while Ziva took care of Sullivan and Tim questioned the rest of the crew. All in all it ended well.

"Can't say you didn't miss this?" Tony asked Gibbs as he came up to him.

He watched Gibbs' eyes flicker to where Tim was before he turned his eyes back to Ziva and Lieutenant Sullivan. Yeah, he knew Gibbs missed Probie, and wasn't too happy about Damon being back, but he didn't say anything.

"A few minutes."

"Only a few?"

"That's all it takes between the victim being in the back of an ambulance or in a body bag."

Tony watched Gibbs walk away, again glancing at Tim, and he sighed. Though he wasn't all for Gibbs and his Probie getting back together, he knew they needed it. They needed each other. He could see it; hell Ziva could see it though she wouldn't admit it. Ziva was set on being Tim's keeper, and the way Gibbs broke the trust she put in him, her stubborn nature was kicking in to not agree with the two men getting together.

It was mostly why he had suggested Tim and Gibbs start dating again, for Boss to prove he was staying and wanted their relationship to continue.

Gibbs had a lot to prove before anything worked. But first…the two stubborn men had to get talking.

And say what you wanted about Tim. He may be a writer, but talking about his feelings, and to another man that also was not one to talk about his feelings; it was going to be rough.

* * *

Tim headed home after leaving work; Gibbs wouldn't let them leave without finishing their report—_'More like he's doing what he can so I can't go out with Damon.'_—and started getting ready to head out. He had called Damon once he got back to NCIS, Gibbs had been away getting coffee, and Damon had named the place.

Ziva had informed him that she would be out with Tony and Abby for drinks, and most likely spend the night at Abby's place, so that he wouldn't be surprised when she wasn't home when he got back from his dinner with Damon. If he hadn't been in such a rush to make it home so he could get ready, he would have questioned Ziva's smirk.

He quickly made his way to the restaurant and smiled when he found Damon already at a table. "Hey Damon."

"Hello Tim," he smiled and stood up to give him a small hug and kiss to his forehead before sitting back down.

* * *

Tim smiled as he walked back into the apartment after his dinner with Damon. It had been great. Damon was funny, sweet, and not surprisingly very flirty which had Tim blushing most of the meal. Which in return had Damon grinning most of the meal also.

He shook his head as he remembered some of the comments Damon made, openly flirting and winking. He knew Damon had wanted to end the dinner with a kiss, but thankfully he had held back and instead just gave him a hug. A very warm and surrounding hug, but…a hug. No kiss.

Tim barely made it to his bedroom when there was a knock at the door. He made his way over and looked through the peephole to see Gibbs standing there. Frowning, he opened the door.

"Jethro? What's up? Did I miss a call?" It wasn't unusual for them to grab a case only hours after finishing one.

Instead of answering, Jethro muscled his way in and walked inside.

"Sure. Come on in," he said sarcastically and shut the door.

"How was your date?"

"It wasn't a date. It was just dinner with a friend." Jethro scoffed and Tim rolled his eyes before moving to the bedroom. He didn't have time for this. "Believe what you want, but that's what it was."

"Only he was probably undressing you with his eyes. And I don't even need to point out what was probably going through his mind," Gibbs sneered as he followed him through the apartment.

"That's beside the point. It was a friendly dinner and…you know what. I don't have to explain this to you."

He gasped when he was grabbed and pushed against the door, his mouth assaulted. For a second, one weak second, he opened his mouth and responded before snapping back and pushing Jethro back and away from him. "What the hell!"

"You're mine Tim. I don't fucking share."

"You can't do that."

"Why the hell not?" Gibbs snapped. "You're mine."

"Enough with the possessive shit." He wasn't one to cuss but it seemed when it came to Gibbs and the way he pushed his buttons, the words came out easily. "I haven't been yours the moment you left me, the team, and NCIS. The moment you _quit_."

"Then what the hell was that night when you came home?"

"…A moment of weakness."

The words hurt to come out, but this has been coming a long time, and all the anger that never came during his grieving months ago was coming out now.

"Bullshit."

He looked away from the ice blue eyes. Tim hated how well Jethro read him. "Get out."

"I'm not leaving."

"Get the hell out Jethro."

"You're going to have to throw my ass out because I'm not leaving Tim. It's about damn time we talked about this."

"What do you want from me? What the hell do you want?"

"A goddamn relationship!"

"You can't have a relationship when you don't remember it in the first place!"

"I remember Tim."

"Really?" he scoffed, his shaking hands running through his hair. "Because sometimes I wonder if you remember our relationship at all or if you just slept with me so that I didn't see Damon."

Jethro's eyes narrowed at him. "What?"

"Yeah, because I find it convenient that you suddenly remember our relationship when Damon shows up and shows an interest in me."

There! It was out!

Jethro's ice blue eyes darkened and instead of being scared though a tiny part of him was, his anger that had been building for months matched his. Jethro stepped towards him. "First of all, you've always been mine. Moment I met you, you were _mine_. It never stopped when I left. When I first woke in that hospital…you…were…mine."

Tim stepped back when Jethro got close and cursed when his back connected with the door.

"So Damon sniffing around what's mine does not sit too well with me." Gibbs hand slapped the door beside his head and Tim glared. "And I didn't just start remembering when Damon showed up." Tim rolled his eyes and went to move but Gibbs slapped his other hand on the door like the first. "Don't fucking move," he growled and proceeded to lean closer. "I remembered back in Mexico."

"And yet you only came back to help Ziva, left, and then again came back to help Fornell. Yeah, shows how much you care about me."

"I'm not done so shut the hell up Tim!"

"Make me!"

_'Wrong words!'_

Jethro's lips crashed down on his and Tim tried to push him away but the assault, the anger, and all the other emotions crashing down on him made his movements weak. His hands grasped Jethro's shoulders and his nails sank into him, causing Jethro to growl and fist his shirt before ripping it open. Tim didn't react except to return the favor, focusing on the anger, and soon found both of their pants down, his leg hitched up on Jethro's hip, and Jethro inside him.

He barely cried out at the pain and pleasure, his nails just continued to dig into Jethro as those rough hands held onto him tightly, their hips meeting roughly. When his bittersweet release came, he whimpered and slumped, Jethro spilling inside him with a hoarse cry.

The kisses pressed to his neck chipped at his armor.

"Tim…"

He turned his head and whispered, "Please leave."

Tim knew Jethro was staring at him, trying to read him and make him look, but he continued to look away. Finally Jethro pulled out of him and after fixing his clothes, left. But not before pressing his lips to his temple and whispering words he never thought he'd hear from the man. Words that had a choked sob come from his throat.

"I'm sorry Tim."

And he left.

Tim didn't move till he heard the door shut and slowly undressed before putting on sweats and a t-shirt. He needed someone, to talk, to just be around, but he couldn't go to Ziva, or even Abby and Tony. Not after what just happened. So, opening his laptop, and only pausing for half a second as he wasn't one to go looking through people's information unless work related, he typed in the number and memorized the address before getting in his car and driving.

* * *

"Tim?"

"Hey Damon," he whispered.

"Are you alright?"

"…No," he shook his head.

Damon stepped aside. "Come on in."

Tim stepped inside and went to Damon's couch after he shut the door and folded his hands in his lap. "I-I'm sorry for c-coming here without calling f-first." His armor was starting to crumble, he could feel it.

"Tim." He raised his head and looked at Damon who was sitting beside him. "What happened?"

"Gibbs."

"What happened?"

"He…He came by to see me after our dinner." It wasn't long before Tim told Damon what happened. Damon stayed quiet and didn't interrupt, didn't judge him or call him weak, and Tim was surprised that he wasn't sobbing by the time he was done.

Damon continued to watch him before gently grabbing his chin with his fingers and stared into his eyes. "Tim."

"Yes?" he whispered brokenly.

And he leaned forward to press his lips gently against his own.

Tim didn't move, but a tear spilled and slowly trailed down his cheek.

* * *

**A/N: Before you kill me, and though it's going to inform you of the next chapter, I just had to let you know that no, Damon and Tim don't sleep together. No matter that I'd like to make it happen a bit, I wasn't about to have Damon sleep with Tim. So...with that said, I hope you enjoyed it.**

**PLEASE REVIEW! They're appreciated.**

**And I hope that anyone who did go Black Friday shopping, that you didn't get hurt. Those shoppers can get a bit crazy. Just look at that woman who peppersprayed another over an XBox. And in a crowd so more than that woman was affected. Crazy.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hey, hey, hey. Thank you all for the reviews. I love them.**

* * *

CHAPTER 4

Gibbs blinked awake and stared blankly at the shattered glass on the floor and dry spot where the bourbon had spilt. He had thrown his glass in frustration last night when he got home, and had no plan to clean it yet.

He had to get ready for work anyway.

* * *

Damon sadly looked down at Tim who was sleeping on his bed and softly sighed. After Tim had had a good cry, Damon had easily convinced Tim to take his bed while he took the couch. It was early the next day and he had come in to wake Tim, but he couldn't bring himself to do it.

He gently sat beside Tim and ran his fingers through his hair, smiled when Tim slipped deeper into sleep with a sigh and a cute wrinkle to his nose. Tim was adorable, handsome, and so damn sweet. There was a sort of light inside Tim that shined through his eyes and it just called out to you to be near him. It was easy to see why Gibbs loved him.

Again he sighed at the thought.

That kiss last night had been so bittersweet. He'd longed to kiss those pouty lips since he stopped by NCIS when they had a case on a runaway named Paulson. The first time he met Tim, he had been a bit busy being on the run, and sadly dislocated Tim's shoulder, but when he had laid his eyes on lonely little Tim in the bullpen when he stopped by to offer help, he had instantly wanted him. Those bright green eyes, they just called to him. And those soft pouty lips, he wanted to ravish them.

Damn.

And he finally kissed him, soft and gentle, but for three reasons. One, he hadn't been able to not do it; two, Tim had needed a way to get him to finally let go; and three, it had been for himself. His first and last kiss to Tim's lips as he knew it would never happen again.

Tim had told him everything, all the way back to when Gibbs lost his memory after the explosion, to the quick romp against the door. And he knew. Tim and Gibbs belonged together, they needed each other. They were just standing in their own way.

He had been able to read Gibbs the moment he met him; Alpha, dominant, possessive of what he believed belonged to him. Hell, he was sure the President would even fall under Gibbs' powerful stare and never think again about trying to take something away from Gibbs. So, it didn't surprise him to hear of what happened last night when Tim got back from their dinner. Gibbs felt threatened and had to assure himself and Tim of what was his.

The two stubborn men just had to talk, and not like they did the previous night.

"Jethro."

He looked down at the loving sigh and continued running his fingers through Tim's hair. "You're a lucky bastard Gibbs," he whispered and cracked a grin when Tim's hands grabbed his own hand and held onto it as if a teddy bear and continued sleeping.

Reaching out with his other hand, he grabbed Tim's cell and called the number he was looking for.

"Ziva… Yeah, it's Damon… No, nothing like that happened. Tim's asleep and I'm calling to let you know that he's going to take the day off… He'll be okay… No, I would have called Gibbs but I'm pretty sure he wouldn't react well to hearing my voice coming from Tim's cell… Yeah, I'll have him call you when he can… Thanks Ziva, and we're gonna have to talk, Abby and Tony included… Alright, call my cell after work today and we'll get together… Will do. Talk to you later."

He hung up and after watching Tim for a few more seconds, he gently took his hand back and headed out to the kitchen to make coffee. Unfortunately he had a meeting he couldn't miss, so he had to be gone before Tim woke, but he would make sure he left a note and an expectation for Tim to still be there when he got back. They too had some things to talk about.

* * *

"Ziva, what's going on?"

Ziva turned her head to look at Abby and Tony, Jethro sprawled out somewhere in their pile. They had picked up Jethro and some clothes from her and Tim's apartment—it was theirs now and not just hers—and brought him back to Abby's where they drank a few drinks together instead of in a bar. And because they couldn't exactly all fit in the Goth's coffin, they had made a bed out of comforters and blankets on her living room floor. Tony had wanted to make a…fort…but they had not had enough to make one. Whatever a fort was.

"Tim is at Damon's, but," she quickly interjected before Abby went off and Tony made some kind of comment, "apparently nothing happened." Abby grinned and if Ziva did not know any better, she would say Tony smiled as well.

"What else?" Tony asked instead.

"I asked him to let Tim know that we have Jethro so he does not worry and tell him to call me so that we know he's okay. Also, Damon said that we are going to have to get together and have a talk. I don't know about what, but it is about something."

"Oh. Okay," Abby said before untangling herself from the pile and stretching standing up. "I'm gonna take care of Jethro. Why don't you guys get breakfast going and then we'll head to work?"

Tony and Ziva nodded before getting up themselves and took turns going to the bathroom. Ziva had started making breakfast by the time Tony joined her and she instructed him to do the eggs while she made the batter for the pancakes.

"Tony?"

"Hmm."

She smirked at his yawn as he was still a bit asleep. Tony wasn't exactly a morning person, with his hair all over the place, slight beard, and his pajama bottoms hung low on his hips. Though, that sight was quite pleasant as she took a peak at his backside. It was only fair after the way he stared at her butt yesterday morning when she had been trying to stretch.

"Do you want Gibbs and Tim back together? Tell me the truth."

"Ziva," Tony whined, "come on. It's too early for this."

"Answer the question."

"...Yeah Ziva, yeah I do."

She frowned in thought before pouring two pancakes onto the hot pan. "Why?" Ziva thought that they were not so happy about Gibbs, she knew she was not. She had trusted Gibbs with Tim's big loving heart and he had broken it. Why would anyone want their friend or brother to go back to the one who hurt them in the first place? It did not make sense.

Tony continued to stare down at the eggs, and just as she was beginning to think he would not answer, he spoke. "They need each other. I like Damon, and say Tim settled down with Damon in the end, he wouldn't…he wouldn't be fully happy Ziva. And that's not fair to Tim, Damon, or even Gibbs."

"How are you so sure? Damon is attractive, sweet, and obviously likes Tim."

"Yeah, and Tim likes Damon, but he loves Gibbs."

"Who broke his heart," she pointed out.

Tony threw her a glare. "You don't think I don't already know that? I was here too Ziva, I saw what Tim went through. Just because Gibbs broke his heart, without even realizing it, that didn't stop Tim from loving Gibbs. And you heard Gibbs in that elevator over a week ago. Even when Gibbs didn't remember Tim, he still wanted him for himself. Call it mushy, but his mind may not have remembered Tim, but his heart did."

She continued to make the pancakes, her and Tony not looking at each other as they thought to themselves. Ziva was surprised by Tony's speech. Which he was not done with.

"And I've been thinking; we weren't exactly helpful. Sure we were here to surround Tim, but we didn't do what really needed to be done. We had plenty of opportunities to tell Gibbs about his and Tim's relationship, but we never did. I mean," Ziva could tell this had been on his mind a while, "at first we didn't because really, how exactly do you tell a man who just relived the news of his family being killed, that he has a gay lover? So yeah, we didn't tell him, but we had other opportunities. Like when you were on the run, even when he was back for a while before Fornell asked him for his help. Hell, even Mike could have told him during any of his time down in Mexico. But no, we all kept our mouths shut and watched Tim continue to suffer."

He slammed the eggs down on the three plates before putting them at the breakfast bar.

"What did you expect to happen if we told him?"

"I don't know Ziva!" He sighed, running his fingers through his hair, making it stand up more. Ziva found herself second guessing everything she had thought as Tony continued talking. "I don't know. Gibbs could have just thought we were joking, he could have just stayed away and said Tim was better off without him, or he could have come back sooner. I don't know. But it would have been doing something to hopefully help Tim. I mean, we just sat there and watched. What kind of friend, what kind of _brother_, does that?"

Placing the pancakes on the plates, she turned off the oven and fingered the turn dials. "So…you are happy about the news of Damon and Tim not spending the night together."

"Yeah. Yeah, I am. Tim and Damon may make a good pair, but Tim and Gibbs make a _great _team. They complement each other too damn well it's scary."

She smiled as she remembered a certain moment when Gibbs had been yelling at them to work harder and faster to come up with something because they hadn't had a break in the case yet, but they had been working nonstop for almost two days and barely had any energy left. Gibbs had stormed off and Tim had barely stopped before following him to the stairwell. Tony and Ziva had wanted to see what he was doing and followed, and watched as Gibbs ranted, showing them for the first time that Gibbs seemed to hold back his anger on the team, but let it loose at Tim who just calmly listened. It had been scary to watch Gibbs fully angry and frustrated, but Tim had just stayed calm.

**~_Flashback~_**

_"Are you done?"_

_Gibbs suddenly slumped against the wall with his head hung; Tony and Ziva glanced at each other as they had never seen the man look so defeated. They knew that cases involving children, especially children already dead, were hard on Gibbs. The case involved someone invading a family's home; they made the parents watch the child die, and then killed the parents. Their killer had done it to two other families. _

_They knew it was hard, any case involving a child was hard, but they started to wonder how much the man hid from even his team-his full frustration and anger, his defeat-yet showed Tim without hesitation._

_"Tim," he whispered brokenly and Tim stepped forward, wrapped his arms around Gibbs' shoulders and ran his fingers through the silver hair while whispering soft words that Tony and Ziva couldn't hear. _

_The older man seemed to melt into Tim's embrace and held him tight when he wrapped his arms around the younger's waist. _

_"We'll get this guy, Jethro. No doubt about it. But I need you to promise me something." Gibbs grunted. "Don't kill him."_

_"He deserves it."_

_"He does," Tim agreed with a nod, his fingers never stopped running through Gibbs' hair, "but don't kill him. Let him rot in jail, not to mention what will happen when the other inmates find out."_

_It was commonly known that even some prisoners had a line they didn't cross, and killing a child or children, was a big one. _

_"Promise me."_

_"…I promise," Gibbs promised before pressing a kiss to his neck and continued holding on to Tim tightly. And it did not escape Ziva's notice that Gibbs was slightly shaking._

_Looking at Tony, they made their way back to the bullpen quietly and worked harder. Not only to bring the children and families' killer to justice, but also for Gibbs._

**_~End Flashback~_**

Yes, Gibbs and Tim complemented each other. She still was not all that happy with the idea of Gibbs with Tim, in a position to break Tim's heart again, but her little brother needed the man. And she wanted him happy.

* * *

Gibbs got to work like he always did, his second coffee kicking in, and as he continued to think of the previous night, he found himself in the elevator and on his way to the Autopsy. Seemed habits were hard to break.

"Ah, Jethro, what can I do for you?"

He shrugged, sipping his coffee, and continued to walk around, looking at things that he really had no interest in. In all honesty, he wanted his friend back, but Ducky seemed set on not forgiving him for leaving in the first place, like his team, like Tim. A pang hit his heart just thinking of last night, the way Tim wouldn't even look at him as he asked him to leave. He didn't know what to do.

"Jethro." He looked to Ducky and the doctor was looking at him worried. "Are you alright?"

Again shrugging, he fingered his coffee cup.

"Does this have to do with young Timothy?"

Gibbs knew his behavior was childlike when he shrugged again, but he couldn't help it. Ducky sometimes made him feel like a child, a child in trouble or one in need of major help. And the doctor seemed to pick up on that and walked over with his tea.

"I see. May I ask what happened?"

"I screwed up Duck." The nickname slipped out without his realize, a name he hadn't used since before he left. "Tim…Tim went out to dinner with Damon last night."

"Ah. And am I correct in guessing that you acted like your usual possessive self?"

Gibbs nearly rolled his eyes. Yeah, Ducky knew him, but even Ducky only knew an extent of him. The team, too, only knew him to an extent. Tim was the only one, aside from his father who he hadn't talked to since Shannon was still alive, who knew him fully; has seen his full anger, his full frustration, his full sadness, or anything else he was feeling. He hid most of himself, but when it came to Tim, he didn't hold back, and Tim took it all. Which…was the downside. He always knew it was only a matter of time before Tim wouldn't be able to take anymore and he ruined it yesterday in his jealousy and possessiveness. He had just charged into that apartment and took Tim against the door.

"You could say that."

Ducky sighed. "Jethro, do you really remember your relationship with Tim?"

He scoffed as he was being questioned again on his memory. "Yes."

"Then you can imagine how Tim felt when you left not only once, but twice." He didn't have to imagine, he just had to remember that broken look in Tim's eyes after they made love in their home after Tim's date with Damon over a week ago. "The poor boy is just probably trying to save himself from more heartache in case you leave again."

"I'm not leaving!"

"Then prove it," Ducky snapped back easily. "You can't just hold him down, say he's yours, and then sleep with him. Your relationship is more than that from what I remember, Jethro. Now, I believe work has started."

Knowing a dismissal, he left and headed to the bullpen to see both Ziva and Tony at their desks, bickering as usual. The only thing that was missing was Tim.

"Where's McGee?"

"Called in sick," they said and he instantly knew he didn't call in sick. But he let it slide with a nod and got to work on some paperwork.

* * *

Tim blinked awake and stretched with a rub to his eyes before he looked around. He started to slightly panic as he didn't know where he was until his brain clicked on and he remembered he was at Damon's. He looked at the time and gasped as he saw how late he was.

He ran out to the living room to grab his keys and phone but stopped when he saw a note.

_Hey Tim,_

_I called Ziva to let her know you were taking the day off. I think you deserve it after yesterday, so relax. I had to go to a meeting I couldn't miss or reschedule, so make yourself at home. I expect you to still be here when I get back. _

_Ziva told me to let you know not to worry about Jethro. She had him last night and she dropped him off with the sitter this morning. Also, call her to let her know that you really are okay._

_See you later,  
Damon_

"Huh, bossy," he mumbled before plopping down on the couch and dialing Ziva's desk phone.

"David."

"Hey Ziva."

"Oh, hey. How are you?"

"I'm alright."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I'm okay Ziva." A good cry could do that.

"Are you still at Damon's?"

Tim blushed, especially as he remembered the way Damon softly kiss him last night, it had been unexpected. "Yes." He really hoped she didn't think anything happened though.

"Okay. Well, you relax and I will see you later."

"Thanks. Bye Ziva."

"Bye Tim."

He hung up and decided to do what Damon instructed and relaxed. Tim turned on the television and lied out on the couch. It wasn't long before he was asleep again and woke when he felt the couch dip.

"Damon?"

"The one and only," he grinned and Tim rolled his eyes at the goof before sitting up. "How you feeling?"

"Good." He blushed as again the previous night came to mind. "Listen Damon, about last night…"

Damon held up his hand to stop him. "Don't worry about it. You came to talk and I just…had to kiss you for myself."

He tried not to blush as he thought about how warm the kiss had been though he had started to cry after the gentleness shown to him. "C-Can I ask why?"

"…Because I know it would be the first and last." Damon smiled at his frown. "You're in love with Gibbs." He shrugged. "And Gibbs loves you back. You belong together."

Tim looked away and traced the arm of the couch. Yeah, he loved Jethro, still loved him and would never stop loving him. No matter Jethro's fear of scaring him away when he didn't hide anything from Tim. He just…the whole situation took a toll on him and he was just so…angry. And then for Jethro to just barge into the apartment and start a fight, which he didn't help at, and then take him against the door, it was like sex was Jethro's answer for everything.

Well, their relationship was more than that!

"Listen, Tim, you need to talk to Gibbs. And not like yesterday. You guys actually need to sit down and talk. Even if it's to decide that you guys are better off without each other." That hurt. "Which I doubt will happen because like I said, you two belong with each other."

Sniffing as he felt the back of his eyes sting, he looked around at anything but Damon. He didn't want to cry damn it. He'd done enough of that and didn't want to do it anymore, especially in front of Damon again.

He stiffened when he felt an arm come around his shoulders, but melted into Damon's chest with his head on his shoulder and closed his eyes. Damon didn't tell it would be alright, he didn't tell him everything would work out in the end. He was just there, offering his warmth and silent support.

"Why couldn't I have fallen in love with you?" he whispered.

Damon chuckled and it vibrated from his chest. "I don't know. Besides, something tells me you and I would have been too easy, and you like a challenge."

Tim smiled at that.

He did like a challenge, and Jethro was one hell of a challenge.

* * *

**A/N: Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. PLEASE REVIEW! They are appreciated.**

**Also, I have all my future NCIS fics' titles and summaries that I plan to do up on my profile. And I put up a poll on which one I should write and post after I finish this series since I can't really decide. The poll will be up all the way through the rest of the series, so if you can't choose now, it's alright. You have time. You can also choose up to two fics if you can't just pick one. So, don't be shy to place a vote.**


	5. Chapter 5

CHAPTER 5

_'I can do this, I can do this, I can do this.'_

Tim stood in front of the door, smoothing his hands over his pants nervously before he finally knocked on the door. He didn't have to wait long before Jethro opened the door and frowned at him.

"Tim?"

"Yeah," he whispered.

He continued to look confused and Tim would have smiled if he wasn't so nervous. "You know you don't have to knock, right?"

Nodding, he cleared his throat. "Yeah, um, I think it's time we had that talk."

For his answer, he stepped aside and after Tim passed him, he shut the door. Tim sat down on the couch and in an instant remembered what happened the last time he was on the leather couch. He hoped Gibbs didn't sit next to him and sent up a silent thank you when Gibbs sat down on the chair after getting some wine instead. There was already a glass of bourbon on the coffee table, so he watched as Jethro poured him some white wine.

He wasn't so sure about alcohol mixed with the conversation they were about to have, but shrugged as it could help them get talking.

They sat in silence, drinking and trying to think of how to start. Of course, it was Jethro who spoke first.

"I do remember."

Tim looked up and found himself staring into Jethro's ice blue eyes.

"Everything. I admit most of my memories were fuzzy or blank when we…" He pointed to the couch he was sitting on as if to clarify what he was talking about though Tim didn't need him to. He knew. "But I did remember you and what we, you know, had."

Nodding, he looked down at his wine. "Thanks."

He didn't have to look up to know Jethro's eyes were on him, staring at him as if thinking of what to say next. He could feel his eyes, always could, ever since he joined the team. He always knew when those piercing blue eyes were on him.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

Tim shook his head. "I don't know." He lifted his eyes again to look at Jethro. "Honestly, I don't know. At first…at first I didn't say anything because I just let you know about Shannon and Kelly. How would you have reacted?" Jethro scowled and Tim nodded in agreement. "Exactly. Then the ship exploded and before I could let that sink in, you came down and said you were leaving. I couldn't tell you. You would have thought I was just saying it to keep you from leaving or a joke."

"When I came back?"

"I barely saw you," he shrugged weakly. "Only time I saw you were when you came into NCIS to find out who the body belonged to that you and Ziva found in the safe house."

"We were alone before I left Tim," he pointed out without pause.

Shame filled him at the reminder. "I know. I could have told you, at least given you some kind of hint. I keep beating myself up for not saying anything."

"Why didn't you?"

"I guess deep down I wanted you to remember on your own. I guess…I guess I had thought that if you remembered on your own it would be real and not you remembering because you were influenced."

Jethro shook his head. "Tim…"

"I know!" He hung his head after setting down his wine as his hands had begun to tremble a bit. "Believe me, I know. I beat myself a lot for not saying anything to you then."

"…What about when I came back for Fornell?"

Again, he shrugged, his head still down. "I was angry. Angry that you were again returning when I was just getting better after you left a second time. I honestly didn't know how much more I could take. Then Damon came." Tim raised his head when Jethro growled. "And how exactly would you have reacted if I told you then?"

"Break his hands…though I wanted to do that anyone."

Tim nibbled on his lower lip as he squirmed a bit at the growl in Jethro's voice. He couldn't help it. The growl got him hot and judging by the half smirk Jethro gave him, he knew it too. The bastard.

"Damon kissed me."

_'Damn. Why the hell did I say that?'_

Jethro's glass paused halfway to his mouth and his suddenly dark blue eyes slammed into him. He squeaked—manfully—when Jethro was suddenly beside him and holding him.

"Jethro," he said as he tried to squirm out of his hold.

But he just held tighter and growled, "Tim."

Tim panicked when Jethro leaned in to kiss him or…something, there was no telling with Jethro, and squirmed harder. Finally Jethro got the idea and let him go and Tim quickly scooted back.

"Jethro, just…wait. We have to talk about this."

"What's there to talk about? Damon fucking kissed you." His eyes narrowed. "Did you kiss him back?"

"No. I cried."

Jethro frowned but the anger and possessiveness was still radiating off of him. Tim was surprised he hadn't pounced back on him yet. He could tell he wanted to though with the way his body was tense and his fingers twitched as if he had Tourette's. Tim slowly slid further back until he was all the way on the other end of the couch and then got up and sat on the empty chair. He had to make sure space was between them or they would just start touching each other, lose themselves, and they'd be right back where they started.

"Listen," he let out a deep breath before bracing himself, "after last night, after what happened, I had to talk to someone. I couldn't go to Tony, Ziva, or Abby."

"Why?"

He smiled a bit for the first time since he stepped inside the house. "Because Tony would have been on the lookout while Ziva killed you and Abby stepped in to make sure there was no evidence left behind."

Jethro nodded. "True. So, you went to…Damon."

"Yeah," he nodded. "He asked me what happened, and I told him. Afterwards, he just, kissed me." Jethro didn't growl but his jaw grinded so loud Tim could hear it from his seat and his hands curled into fists. But he nodded for Tim to continue. "After that, I kind of…cried. Well, sobbed really." He blushed at the confession. "He let me crash at his place and called Ziva this morning to tell her I was taking the day off and to let you know. When he got back from work, I asked him why he kissed me."

"…And?"

"And he said it was for himself really; his first and last kiss." Jethro's focus seemed to hone in on that. Tim nodded. "Yeah, he knew that nothing could happen between us."

"Really?"

He softly smiled at the slight hope in Jethro's voice and nodded. "Yeah. Turns out I like challenges and you, Jethro, are one hell of a challenge."

Jethro smirked at that, pride and mischief in his eyes, and he went to stand but Tim stopped him.

"Wait. Jethro, we still have to talk about this. This, thing, isn't all because of Damon."

Jethro sighed but nodded, grabbed his bourbon and took a drink. "Alright, what else?"

"The…possessiveness."

His lover's body jerked and froze in surprise. He knew this was going to be hard, this was a part of Jethro, it was what he was. Alpha, possessive, dominant, possessive, commanding, and…possessive. What he believed to be his…was his. No if, ands, or buts.

"What about it?"

"I…" he shook his head, "love it. I'm not going to lie. I love that you're possessive of me. It reassures me that you really want me and that you won't let me go, or let anyone take me from you. And I know it's a part of who you are. I belong to you." Jethro's head snapped over to look at him and Tim smiled as he nodded. "Yes, I still and will always belong to you. And you have to reassure yourself that I continue to belong to you."

"…So," he cleared his throat, "so what's the problem?"

"You can't solve a problem by just holding me down, saying I'm yours, and have your way with me. Like last night."

It was like after he got his memories back, he resorted to his baser instincts and went all caveman on him. Well, more caveman than before.

Jethro cracked a grin and Tim frowned. "What?

He shook his head with a small chuckle. "Nothing. Just something I heard somewhere."

"Oh." He watched Jethro a few more seconds before he continued. "Well, you can't. We have to talk about things, sure we'll yell and possibly give the other the silent treatment for a while, but we've done that before. It's nothing new. Then once we resolve the problem, well, then you can pin me down."

Again Jethro cracked a grin before finishing his bourbon.

Tim finished his own wine. "So…what happens now?"

"I don't know, Tim. You tell me. I don't want to do anything that'll have me lose you after all this."

Warmth filled him at Jethro's admittance. "I…I want us to be…us again. You know what I mean?"

Jethro smiled and nodded. "I do."

"Good. I mean, I know we can't go back to how we used to be exactly, after everything, but we can get better." He smiled. "So…"

"Would you like to have dinner with me?"

Tim grinned, the talk had gone a hell of a lot better than he had planned, and nodded. "Yes. I would like that."

Jethro stood and held out his hand for him and after Tim gave him his hand and was helped up, Jethro planted a sweet gentle kiss to the back of his hand. Tim smiled back and as they walked to the kitchen, he asked, "What are you cooking?"

* * *

Damon smiled at the rest of the Gibbs' team and had a new respect for Tim to survive so many years with them. He also understood why Tim came to him the previous night and not them, his family. They would have murdered Gibbs with a smile for what he did, and would have gotten away with it too. That thought sent shivers down his spine and he had a flickering thought that maybe he had bit the bullet with not continuing to go after Tim. Because God forbid if he accidently hurt Tim and they had found out.

Of course, it was only a flickering thought. He would gladly take their wrath to end up with Tim. Then again, like he told Tim earlier, it probably would have been way too easy for him and Tim and they wouldn't have last long.

No use thinking about the ifs now, after he sent Tim on his merry way to Gibbs' house for that talk they needed.

And while he had left, Ziva, Tony, and Abby had shown up at his place for a bit of a talk and just to hang. He had to distract them a bit because he wasn't so sure how they would react to knowing Tim was trying to officially patch things up with Gibbs. They'd probably go chase him down to stop him or go over there to eavesdrop. Either way, he had to distract them a bit.

"So, how are you guys?"

"We're fine. Why was Tim over here last night and today?" Abby asked.

_'Straight to the point isn't she?'_

"You didn't sleep with my Probie did you?" Tony questioned with narrowed eyes.

Maybe it wasn't so smart having them over. Maybe he should have just let them be. Shit they made him nervous when they were like this. Surprisingly, Ziva was being quiet, her eye on something else. He followed her line of sight and saw her looking at Tim's cell phone.

"That is Tim's cell phone." Tony and Abby looked over and watched Ziva grab it. "We should go give it to him. It would not be good for him to miss a call when a case comes." Her deadly brown eyes zeroed on him and he fought not to squirm. "Do you know where he is?"

Nervously chuckling, "Pssh. No. He's a free man. You know, he can do whatever he wants."

All three sets of eyes were staring and Damon vaguely thought to suggest to Gibbs to just have the three in interrogation in the background and to just stare. Their perp would crack in seconds. It was highly uncomfortable.

"Alright, fine, I know where he is."

"Where?"

"Gibbs'."

Tony and Abby smiled and looked hopeful while Ziva's was neutral. Yet, there was a hint of hopefulness.

"Probie's with Boss?"

"That's what he said, Tony," Abby said rolling her eyes before bouncing over to him in excitement. "Are they reconnecting? Talking, having sex, what? Come on tell me!"

"Alright had sex last night," he mumbled and froze in horror as he realized he said that out loud and the others heard him.

"You…Tim…What?"

He looked at his watch. "Would you look at the time? It's getting pretty late, and I'm hungry. I'm gonna go get something to eat. Maybe Chinese. Authentic. I'm going to China. Anyone want to join me? No. Alright then."

He barely made it to the door before three pairs of hands grabbed him and pulled him back.

_'Damn.'_

* * *

**A/N: PLEASE REVIEW!**


	6. Chapter 6

CHAPTER 6

_"McGee."_

_"Tim!"_

_"Damon?"_

_"Yeah, look…they know."_

_"…Know what?"_

_"About what happened with you and Gibbs."_

_"…Oh…Did they just stand there and stare at you with their arms crossed, and Ziva played with her knife?"_

_"Yes. How'd you know?"_

_"It's the way they are when they want answers. It's alright. They would have found out anyway." Damon sighed in relief and Tim chuckled. "Relax. I'm not mad."_

_"Good. So, how'd it go?"_

Tim had been with Jethro when Damon's call came through, so he had taken his time to get home and had luckily found only Ziva in the apartment and asleep. And he hadn't given her a moment to say anything the next morning as he had left to head back over to Jethro's so they could share a run. He had showered and gotten ready there as well.

Now, he pulled into the work and saw Ziva getting out of her own car.

"Hello McGee."

"Hey Ziva."

They headed to the elevator where Ziva asked, "Where were you this morning?"

"The gym."

"…Liar," she smiled smugly and went back to looking forward."

"W-What?"

"Tim, you are many things but a liar is not one of them. Besides," she said as the elevator opened on their floor, "men are such bad liars."

"But…if a good liar was telling you a lie, you would not know it was a lie."

"Ha! I would."

"How would you know?"

He looked over to Tony who was sitting at his desk, balancing a pencil on his nose, when he spoke. "Know what?"

"When an expert liar is telling Ziva a lie."

"And this started how?"

"Well," he said and stuck his hands in his pockets, "I told her that I went to the gym this morning."

He rolled his eyes when Tony straightened and caught the pencil in his hands. "No great skill in guessing you were fibbing there, Probie. You may have lost some weight, and personally, I'm very proud of you, but "gym" is definitely not your middle name. And don't think we won't have a little talk about what we found out yesterday. No doubt Damon told you already."

Tim didn't need to look at Gibbs' desk where he was doing some work to know the man heard Tony. Besides, he had warned him last night that the team now knew what happened between them in the apartment.

"Okay, well, Ziva thinks that all men are liars."

A slowly sly smiled grew on Tony's face. "Really?" he chuckled before standing and walking around his desk to sit against the front as Ziva sat against her own. "So, if I were to lie to you, you would be able to tell."

Ziva chuckled right back. "Particularly you."

"You think?"

Shaking his head, he warned, "Wouldn't go there, Tony," and went to go to his desk but Tony's hand on his chest stopped him.

"Oh, watch and weep. True or false: I had eggs for breakfast this morning."

Ziva stared at Tony for a few seconds before answering. "True."

"Lucky guess." Tim smirked in amusement at Tony's surprised face as Ziva walked to stand right in front of Tony. "Last night, I had a date with a _very_ beautiful woman. After we left Damon's."

"False."

"She's good. My first car was a shiny new red corvette."

"False. Strike three. I win."

Tim smiled at Tony's open mouthed surprised look before going to his desk as Ziva did the same.

"H-How did you do that?"

"When you said you had a red corvette, you looked down and to the left – a telltale sign when people lie."

Tim glanced at Gibbs when his phone rang before turning his attention back to other two.

"And the date?"

"Tony…if you'd gone out with a beautiful woman last night, you'd have talked about it all day. Not to mention last night before we left Damon's."

"I would?"

Tim snorted. "Oh yeah."

"Okay," Tony admitted as he stood up, his confused look still on his face, "but how could you possibly know that I had eggs for breakfast this morning?"

Even Tim knew that answer and was going to tell him when Gibbs hung up the phone. "Gear up. Got a message from a dead guy."

"Ready to roll, Boss."

"DiNozzo," Gibbs addressed when he walked by.

"Yeah Boss?"

"You got egg on your shirt."

Tim walked by with a smile and couldn't help but add, "Always said you needed to start wearing bibs Tony."

"Probie!"

He chuckled and joined Gibbs, who gave him a smile, in the elevator, Ziva and Tony following. They rode in silence until Ziva added, "And not just your shirt."

* * *

"It's amazing what the human body can endure. This poor fellow probably lasted longer than he should."

"How much longer?"

"Several minutes. Not much when you stack it against a lifetime of minutes, but minutes nonetheless. He could've driven a couple of miles."

"More like a couple city blocks. Traffic sucks at this time of day. According to his military I.D. he's Chief Petty Officer Jack T. Vale. You know him?"

Gibbs frowned at the cop beside him that handed him Vale's I.D. "No."

"Well, he knows you guys."

He leaned down to look inside the car and saw "NCIS" written in blood on the passenger seat.

Tony was taking notes as he looked down at all the change on the ground and more that was still in the car from the overturned bag. "Jackpot. Got to be 50 or 60 bucks there."

"There's more in his trouser pocket," Ducky added for Tony's notes.

"What do you think, illegal shots?"

Tim took photos of the change. "Maybe he was on his way to a video arcade."

Gibbs nearly smiled at that. Of course Tim would suggest something like that, thought personally, Gibbs wasn't so sure on how many men, Petty Officers anyway, that went to the video arcade in the morning.

"Maybe he was doing laundry," Ziva suggested.

"That's a lot of laundry."

"Maybe he was a once-a-month kind of man."

"I do it once a week." Tim looked at Tony and Tony clarified, "Laundry."

Figuring it was time to move on, he looked at the man they the two cops had to arrested before the crash happened. "Who's the fare?"

"Oh," the cop said as he handed over a driver's license, "that's Robert John Stevens. But the guy's got an accent as thick as Polish sausage, so I ain't buying it. Found a loaded .38 on the seat, recent fired."

Gibbs took the gun in the evidence bag and handed it off to Tony before addressing Ducky. "Got an exit wound?"

Ducky leaned into the car to move Vale and take a look. "Well, there doesn't appear to be an exit wound. So I dig out the bullet, you match it to the weapon and, hey, presto, justice prevails."

He nearly smiled at Ducky's enthusiasm as it was the first time he's seen it since getting back.

"Open and shut case, Boss," Tony said.

"No such thing, DiNozzo, only watertight." He walked away and over to take a look at "Stevens" and yeah, that definitely wasn't his name.

* * *

"Give me a call when you're finished," Ducky requested and Tony nodded.

"You got it Ducky."

Tim moved in after Ducky moved and took a few pictures of Vale, mostly where he was shot. When he went to walk to the other side, as Tony and Ziva looked at "Stevens'" driver's license, he noticed that Ducky was watching him. Pausing at the back of the car, he asked, "Everything okay Ducky?"

"I could ask the same of you Tim." At his frown, he continued. "Jethro informed me yesterday that you had a dinner with Mr. Werth and…he didn't react well to it."

Jethro telling Ducky about what happened, no specifics since that wasn't Jethro, but to even mention it to the doctor, when they weren't on the best of the terms, surprised him. But the fact Jethro admitted what happened, and to Ducky, warmed him a bit. He had already admitted to it the previous night over dinner, but it was nice hearing it again.

He shook his head with a smile. "I'm fine Ducky. We, ah," he leaned closer, "we had dinner last night and talked about a few things."

Ducky smiled back with a pat to his arm. "So, I take it things are well."

"Too early to tell, but we're going to work at it."

"Good. Now, I must be on my way."

"Thanks Ducky."

After Ducky turned away, he turned to continue walking to the other side of the vehicle and listened to Ziva and Tony, the latter stating, "Doesn't look like a fake ID."

"Fake."

"What are you talking about? You barely got a look at it."

"I can spot a fake a mile away."

"Huh. I had the best fake ID in college. Never got turned away from a bar."

Ziva and Tim shared a look over the top of the car before she turned to look at Tony. "Never?"

"Never." He stared at Ziva who stared back. "Once."

"Once?"

"…Or twice."

"A month?"

"…A week. But, listen, we went out every night, and it was a college town. And they're very tough there, eagle-eyed bouncers. You really had to act the part, too, you know? You had to be mature, worldly, kind of grown up."

Ziva smiled. "So it wasn't really the ID, it was you."

Tony slipped on his DiNozzo smile and Tim shook his head before taking a picture of the cell phone he found on the floor. "Are you kidding me? No. No, I was…I was the master of fake."

Tim picked up the phone to end the conversation. "Last call dialed was 911. Cops will have it on tape. Maybe this one will be easy."

* * *

Tony and Ziva stood in the observation room, watching Gibbs talk to "Stevens" and "Stevens" not talk back.

"So…what do you have planned for Gibbs?"

"Nothing," she answered truthfully. She was highly upset with the way Gibbs barged into her and Tim's apartment, start a fight with him, and then just have sex with him. And she was a bit…hurt…that he went to Damon and not her to talk about it, but she understood. Her first reaction would have been, and was when she first heard about it, was to make Gibbs suffer. However, when she calmed down she kept silent and put her trust in Tim. He would come to her if he needed help.

"Yeah…me neither."

"Liar."

"You know what, women want men to lie to them."

"Not true."

""Honey, does my butt look big in these pants to you?" "Actually, yes, sweetheart, your butt looks as big as Alabama. Didn't want to say anything, but you got the 'Bama butt going on." See? You want us to lie to you, so we do. Especially if your butt really is as big as 'bama." She froze and looked over at him. "Not that…not that your butt is big." She looked away and back to the interrogation. "And not that I've even looked.

"Oh, liar."

"Okay," he chuckled nervously, "I have looked, but you know, I never…"

"Never what?" So she snapped, what else was she to do when Tony was talking about her backside?

"Oh, no." The infuriating man laughed and pointed at her. "I…I'm catching on to you. And you're not going to get me to say something and then do you little Mossad true-or-false trick. I'm too smart for that."

Chuckling, "Of course you are."

She heard the door open and turned when Gibbs stopped beside her.

"Ziva."

"Gibbs."

"How many languages do you speak?"

* * *

Gibbs walked into the lab and watched Abby kneeling in front of the floor as she stacked the change that had been with Petty Officer Vale in the car. He came up beside her and said, "Tell me you found a match on our suspect's prints, Ab."

"Negative. Still processing. What we do have is $73.65. That's what the victim was carrying." He stepped back when she stood up. "And there's no pennies. He probably threw them out." He could tell a rambling on was coming. "A lot of people do, you know. I mean, I don't, but other people do. Do you know how many pennies are thrown out or put into jars every year?"

"Enlighten me."

"Three and a half billion. Billion, Gibbs. That's, like, $35 million in pennies. That's a log of pennies in any language."

"Including Russian."

She frowned in confusion. "No, Russians don't have pennies, they have kopecks. What's it have to with Russia?"

"Run his prints through immigration and let's find out." Thanks to Ziva's multilingual skills, they were able to tell their "Stevens" was Russian. Not that he said anything, but with his little tell of looking down and to the left.

"Oh, because he's a foreigner and every visitor is printed when they enter the U.S. Clever, Gibbs." He watched her key it into the computer and watch it go through before going to another computer. "Okay, I reviewed the 911 call. Ready?"

_"My name is jack vale. This is really important, okay? I've identified a terrorist, a known terrorist. I'm following him downtown right now. Get someone over here. Call NC—"_

"NCIS," Abby finished. "I'm guessing an overtaxed relay tower in the downtown area caused the line to drop off before he finished. But, Gibbs, this guy works in the supply department. What would he know about terrorists?"

"That's a good question."

"I also isolated the background noise." She did a few clicks before a sound like electronic chinking played. "It's kind of a Pac-Man-retro-meets-Vegas sort of thing. Not really something you hear in a car."

"He was on foot when he made the call."

Her computer made the beeping sound that signaled a match and they both looked at the screen. "We have a winner," Abby announced. "Nikolai Aleksandrovich Puchenko. Russian. Uh-oh." Yeah, that kind of beeping wasn't good as the "Wanted Person" sign flashed below Nikolai's picture. "And there's a Homeland Security alert. You're not the only one interested in Mr. Nikolai Puchenko."

Yeah, that just made things complicated. And he hated complicated.

He was about to leave when Abby grabbed his arm. "Whoa, I'm not done."

"What? Did Ducky get the bullet?"

"No, he hasn't brought it yet. No, I want to know about what happened with you and McGee two nights ago."

Gibbs refrained from rolling his eyes. Tim had told him last night during dinner after getting off the phone with Damon. He didn't really know what Abby wanted to hear that she didn't already.

"I made a mistake and fixed it last night."

"So…you're back together, right?"

He smiled at the hopeful look, a complete contrast to the past whenever Tim started seeing someone. "We're working on." And pressing a kiss to her temple and an added, "Good job," he left the lab and headed to the interrogation room with Nikolai, and then to autopsy to find out why it was taking so long to get the bullet that they needed to close the case.

"Ducky, where's that bullet?" He completely ignored the fact that Ducky was bloody and holding what looked like a ladle. A bit one too. He didn't want to know what that was for.

"I'm afraid it's not that simple. Normally matching the bullet to the weapon shouldn't present us with any great difficulty, but this is far from normal."

"How far?"

"I haven't seen anything like it in 25 years of slicing and dicing." Ducky stood to the side to show the trail of the bullet on his own body. "The bullet entered below the rib cage, traveling from left to right. It nicked the pancreas, missed the liver, deflected off the fifth rib and gouged its way through soft tissue and perforated the stomach. No exit wound. And so that's where it appears to have, um…"

He didn't like that "um". "To have um, what, Dr. Mallard?"

"Vanished. It's not in the bullet furrow and it's not showing up on any of the x-rays. I don't know where it's gone. I'm afraid we don't have a bullet."

Damn.

See, no such thing as open and shut cases.

* * *

Tim stood at his desk, over his keyboard while Ziva stood in front of the screen and Tony did something at his desk.

"The 911 call was routed through this tower here."

Tony asked, "Anyone ever heard of Operation Sunburst?"

But Tim continued. "That locates Vale somewhere in this area when he made the call." He walked out from behind his desk and walked over to join Ziva in front of the screen. "Anywhere outside of the circle would have meant that that call was routed through a different cell tower." He vaguely wondered if Ziva understood what he was even talking about, but his teammates always let him talk through the technical stuff as it let him clear his head and speak his thoughts. Just like he sometimes just sat and listened as they vented or Ziva went through gun talk as if to clear her own thoughts.

"Back in '91. Come on," Tony cried from his desk, "anyone, Operation Sunburst."

Again they ignored him and Tim continued. "About three city blocks…"

"Less," Gibbs stated as he entered the bullpen and joined him and Ziva. "Abby said the signal dropped out. That probably puts him at the outside edge of the reception area of that tower." And he showed which tower.

Tim stared at his lover. "That's pretty clever, Boss. How'd you figure that out?"

Gibbs stood in front of him and gave his half smirk, and stared into his eyes. Tim could see into those blue ices and knew the man wanted to kiss him, but not only were they at work but they had agreed to take this slowly. "Too much time around you."

Smiling, and smiling at Ziva who shook her head with a smirk, he watched Gibbs walk over to Tony's desk who called for his attention. "Boss, Operation Sunburst—you know it? It was a sting. One of our ops. Chief Vale was part of it. He was just a P.O. Three back then—detailed from the Supply Department to NIS for five weeks."

"Get that file from archives."

"I can't. I mean, it's not possible, Boss," he explained under Gibbs' stare. "I got the index reference, but when I called the archive, they said the file was missing."

"Check the log. Who booked it out last?"

"CIA. So I guess that's not a "who," it's more of an "it.""

"Who was the NIS case agent?"

Tim looked over in time to see Mike Franks' picture show up on the screen and Gibbs' head hang.

"What time is it in Mexico right now?" Tony asked.

"Cantina time," he said as he walked back to his desk.

* * *

Gibbs sat at his desk and called the number he knew Mike would be at.

"Si?"

"Mike Franks there? Tell him it's Washington."

"Si." He listened to the music in the background before he heard the man who answered speak again. "Washington Senior."

He leaned back in his seat before Mike took the phone. "Only one person in Washington DC knows where to find me this time of day. How you doing, Probie?"

"Well, I'm surviving. You?" He twirled around when he saw Tony openly watching him.

"Sun's hot, ocean's warm, beer's cold. Got no complaints. You change your mind?"

"Every day. But then something stops me," he confessed as he stared at Tim who was at his desk, working on his computer and his focus on whatever task he was doing. Though he glanced up at him and smiled when their eyes connected and Gibbs smiled back.

His focus came back to Mike when he laughed. "I'm sure. What's stopping you this time?"

Right, back to work. "Operation Sunburst."

"…That was a long time ago."

"Do you remember a petty officer name Vale?"

"Right guy, right place, right time. Went undercover for us."

"Well, he was shot dead this morning."

There was a long pause on the other end before Mike spoke again. "And you think this has something to do with Sunburst?"

"Well, you tell me. We got a suspect. Russian."

"Arkady Kobach?" The slight eagerness in Mike's voice didn't pass Gibbs' ear.

"Nikolai Puchenko."

"Arkady Kobach is the man you need to worry about. Puchenko and he served together. When the Soviet Union started falling apart, they got into the arms trade. Wanted to buy some of our Stingers to sell to Chechen terrorists. Tried to bribe Vale in the Supply Department."

"So you sent him undercover?"

"Someone tipped them off. They hightailed it back to Eastern Europe. A month later, the CIA stuck its nose in and our file conveniently went missing… What happened to Vale?"

"He bumped into Puchenko in the street. Recognized him, tried to follow him. Puchenko shot him."

"I hope you've got an ironclad case. This piece of scum is way overdue."

Sighing and taking off his glasses as he heard the command in Mike's voice and the slight need. A need for this case not to end up like before. "Yeah. Working on it, Boss. Good luck with the fishing down there. Thanks for the tip."

"Good luck."

He hung up and grabbed his pen as he needed something to do with his hands, he knew it would only be a few hours before Mike showed up. Frustrated, and the fact that Tony was still staring at him, he threw the pen back down. "We got a case yet, DiNozzo?"

"Like you said, working on it, Boss."

Ziva spoke from her desk. "We've narrowed down the area where he was shot, and we do have a suspect in possession of a gun."

"Which means murder one," said Tim that Tony added to.

"With a bullet."

"If we can find one."

This case was far from open and shut.

He gave a few orders that didn't lead anywhere, before he called it a night and headed out like the rest of the team. Gibbs got to his car where Tim was waiting. Stopping in front of the young man, he looked around to make sure they were alone and that they were out of view of the camera, and then wrapped his hand around the back of Tim's neck and pulled him into his arms. They just stood there together, Tim's head resting on his forehead, breathing together and just basking in each other's presence.

"It's dog pile night."

Chuckling, he pressed a kiss to the younger man's temple. He remembered when he had joined a dog pile, he had nearly head-slapped Tony into the next week when he woke before everyone. Tony had been sprawled around across the bottom, his head on Tim's thigh and his arm around both Tim and his thighs as if to make sure they didn't move. Then his other hand had been on Abby's hip underneath the waist of her pajama bottoms. He always knew DiNozzo would be grabby in his sleep.

He had feigned sleep as Ziva woke and then woke the others, even listened as Tony's voice got higher and higher as he tried to guess on whose hand had been in his hair. Which he himself had been surprised to see when he woke. And his fingers hadn't only been in Tony's hair, but brushing Ziva's fingers that had also been in Tony's hair. But when Tony finally guessed whose fingers had been in his hair, he had taken pity on him and removed his hand, holding Tim tighter when he turned into his arms and snuggled into his neck.

"Alright. Go enjoy your night."

"You don't want to come?" he asked, looking at him.

Shaking his head, he pressed another kiss on Tim, but on his forehead. "Mike will be showing up."

"He is?"

"Trust me."

"Alright. See you tomorrow."

"See you."

Gibbs watched Tim head over to his own car before getting into his own and heading home. He changed before heading down to his basement to work on his boat, something to clear his mind and pass the time it took for Mike to show up.

It wasn't long before he lost himself in the work and heard the door open.

"Probie."

Getting out from the under the boat, he answered, "Yeah."

Mike came down and stopped at the bottom, staring at the boat. "What's this? Number three?"

"Four."

"Would have thought you'd have been done practicing by now," he said as he put down his bag down and get closer to the boat.

"There's always something to learn, Mike."

Mike smoothed his hand over the boat in a caress. "Hard lessons."

"Some harder than others."

Mike was silent a bit as Gibbs wrote down the measurements he took before Mike came, and then asked, "Got any extra fine?"

He grabbed one before walking over, putting it on the boat, and then went back to his desk. "You didn't waste any time getting here."

"You were expecting me?"

"Well, I would have been disappointed if you didn't come. Though I'm surprised it took you so long."

"Yeah, well," Mike said, grabbing the sander, "let's just say I don't like loose ends, Probie."

Getting his own sander, he walked over to the boat and Mike. "Takes more than loose ends to get you off that beach in Baja."

"These scumbags have been selling weapons to tyrants and terrorists ever since they gave us the slip." Gibbs turned to look at his former boss. "Guns and bombs and RPGs used to kill American soldiers and marines in every hellhole from Mogadishu to Baghdad. It's time it ended."

"…You know who tipped them?"

"Rumor was they'd agreed to supply some new high-tech Soviet missile to CIA. Guess they figured they wouldn't get their missile if their arms dealers were in prison. Which is exactly where I was going to send them." He stared down at the boat and sander in his hand before looking at Gibbs. "You've got a chance here, Probie. Don't screw it up."

He stared back at Mike, there was something in his eyes, and suddenly went back to his desk. "You talking about the case, my life, or both?"

Mike gave a gravel chuckle. "So you figured it out. Good for you."

"Yeah." He dropped the sander on the desk. "You knew."

"Yep…I knew. Found out when you were in the hospital."

Shaking his head, he looked to Mike who was playing with his fine. "So you knew the whole time I was in Mexico and didn't say anything."

"What do you want me to say Probie? I watched you mourn your wife and daughter again. Then you seemed set on forgetting. Would you have even believed me?"

"Yes!" He took a deep breath before letting it out. "I would have believed you because I knew you wouldn't joke about something like that, especially after watching me mourn my girls."

"Hell, Probie, I knew you'd figure it out on your own."

"Yeah, and it took me months and leaving twice. I hurt him Mike."

Mike hung his head at that and looked away at the boat while Gibbs looked down at his desk as again the image of Tim laying out on their leather couch, looking at him broken, and asking if he was going to leave again came to mind. No matter what, no matter how many years pass and how many ups they have in the future, he knew he was never going to forget that moment when Tim lied out broken before him. Broken because of him.

He never wanted to see that again.

"How is the kid?"

Sighing, he grabbed two glasses and poured out some bourbon. "Would be completely broken if it wasn't for the team there to support him while I wasn't." He walked over and handed over Mike's drink.

"You two back together?"

"…We had a major…falling out the other day, but we talked and now we're working on it. It'll take time."

"Good," Mike said, raising his glass before taking a drink.

* * *

**A/N: PLEASE REVIEW! They're appreciated.**

**Also, if you haven't seen, I posted up "Wet Your Appetite" where you get clips of all the future fics I have in mind. And I put up a new poll since I'm sure some people voted, read the clips, and then wanted to change their vote but couldn't. So, if you haven't, go check it out, and vote. Everything's appreciated to help me figure out the order I'm going to post the future fics after the series.**

**You get three votes.**


	7. Chapter 7

CHAPTER 7

Tim arrived to work pretty early the next day after digging himself out from under the dog pile. For some reason they had been literally piled on him when he woke. He was still surprised he hadn't noticed his position until he woke and even more surprised he was able to break throughout the night. Abby had been sprawled on half of him, Ziva had been on the other half, her arm around Abby, and Tony had somehow sprawled out between his legs a bit sideways, his head practically using Abby's butt as a pillow.

The man really was a grabber in his sleep.

He had been really tempted to wait it out and tease Tony about his position, of not only being between his legs but also how his head on Abby's butt, but he had wanted to get an early start to the day. And somehow, he had gotten out from under them without waking them up. They were behind as he headed to NCIS early, he had more searching to do on Nikolai Puchenko and Arkady Kobach.

So after grabbing himself another cup of coffee from the break room, he returned to the bullpen and saw Gibbs and Franks.

"Morning McGee."

"Boss," he nodded. "Mike."

"Hello Tim." Mike got up from his previous position of leaning against Gibbs' desk and stood before him with his hand out. "It's good to see you again."

"Likewise." He shook Mike's hand before continuing to his desk.

A part of him wanted to be angry at the man and confront him; he had been with Jethro for all those months down in Mexico, and never said a word. But all he had to do was think about his own actions, or lack of actions, and his anger went away. There was no use getting angry when he was partially to blame for Jethro not remembering earlier than he did. Besides, Jethro did remember and they were working on their relationship, and there was no doubt that Jethro addressed Mike's lack of information of his and Tim's relationship.

"So, uh, how are you?"

Raising his head to look at Mike who looked uncomfortable, Tim hid his smile as Mike looked a bit like Jethro did at the beginning of their relationship when he tried to be open and not his usual closed off self. It was rather adorable, though he would never say that out loud.

He nodded. "I'm doing well. Besides this case, how are you?"

Mike shrugged, his hands stuffed in his pockets. "Can't complain." He continued to stare at Tim for a few seconds before looking away and around, only to return to looking at Tim. Tim patiently waited as he knew the man wanted to say something else, and when he wasn't looking, Tim glanced at Jethro and smiled which Jethro gave a smirk in return. "So…I, uh, heard," he cleared his throat and Tim bit his lip to definitely make sure he didn't smile. "I heard you had it pretty rough these past few months."

"Yes." No use lying.

"Yeah." Mike scratched at his beard before stuffing his hand back in his pocket. "Well, I guess it's partially my fault, so, you know…sorry."

Gibbs was smirking as he sat at his desk and Tim finally let his smile show. Privately a little pleased that Mike apologized, he stood and walked around, clapping Mike on the shoulder. "Don't worry about it Mike. You're not alone in the keeping quiet part of this. Besides," he grinned, "we geeks are stronger than we look." Turning to Jethro, he said, "I'm gonna head downstairs to the cyber division so I can do a bit of deeper digging on the Russians. Can't keep hacking into things from the same computer or I'll get caught."

With a wink, he grabbed his coffee off his desk and headed out. But he heard Mike speak to Jethro before he was too far away.

"I knew I liked him for a reason, Probie, but, man, are you going to have your hands full with that one."

"…I know. It's great huh?"

He snickered and took a sip of his coffee as he waited for the elevator. The doors barely closed before a hand slipped in to stop it, and Jethro joined him. They rode a few floors before Jethro flipped the switch and turned to him.

"Yes Jethro?"

Instead of answering, Jethro grabbed him and pulled him to his chest in an embrace that filled Tim with warmth. He sighed into the man as he relaxed and tucked his neck into Jethro's neck, smelling the man and pressing a soft kiss to the skin, giggling when Gibbs groaned and his arms tightened.

"Tim, we said slowly."

"I know."

"Well, I can't go slowly if you do things like that."

Smiling, he pulled back. "Okay."

Jethro raised his one of his hands to rub the back of his neck in a soothing motion, his fingers through the hair at the back of his neck. "Thanks for not hating Mike."

"I can't hate him," he admitted. "Besides," he shrugged, "what I said was the truth. He wasn't alone in the keeping quiet part. I never said anything, he never said anything, and even the rest of our team didn't say anything and some of them had more opportunities to tell you than I did." Jethro nodded in agreement. "Now," he said placing one hand on Jethro's chest, smiling at the familiar feel of touching the hard chest, "I need to get to hacking."

Smirking, Jethro let him go with a kiss to his temple before he started the elevator back up.

* * *

Gibbs watched Tim get off onto the floor he needed, and smiled to himself when the elevator headed back up to his floor. He was glad Tim didn't hold a grudge against Mike, especially when Mike had done the unexpected and apologized. Tim really was amazing and had a way about him that he even got Mike to apologize.

Shaking his head, he headed to his bullpen and saw that Tony and Ziva had arrived, talking with Mike. His phone rang then and after hearing who it was, he suggested his two agents take Mike for a tour.

"Yeah," he said once they left.

"Agent Gibbs, Mr. Puchenko's lawyer, Marty Allen, is here."

"Alright thanks. You can send him up." After he hung up, he made a call for Puchenko to be escorted into interrogation room one and inform him that his lawyer was there.

It wasn't long when the three came back and Mike leaned against his desk again as he, Tony, and Ziva watched the screen where Nikolai Puchenko was in handcuffs and talking with his lawyer. Puchenko made a gesture to the camera.

"Same to you, Nikolai," Tony said.

"Who's that with him?"

"Marty Allen. His lawyer," Gibbs supplied before going back to his phone call.

Mike continued to stare at the screen. "Hope he's not a good lawyer."

Finally getting off the phone, he asked Mike, "Enjoy your tour?"

"Yeah, place is like a video arcade. You've got more technology in one room than we had in every office across the whole damn country. You know, if I needed to interrogate someone when I worked at Camp Pendleton, I'd take them into the broom closet with a telephone directory."

Gibbs rolled his eyes. "No broom closet, no telephone directory…" and seeing the cigarette that was suddenly between his lips, he plucked it out and held it for Mike, "and no smoking."

"…Another three reasons why I left just in…time."

He looked over at what Mike was looking at that made him pause and saw Jenny with a man in a suit approach. She braced herself against the divider. "Special Agent Gibbs," she addressed, "may I have a moment?"

"Hoo-rah, gunny."

Smiling, he walked over to them, hearing Ziva ask Mike, "You know that guy?"

"Yeah. Like a rat knows a snake."

He stopped in front of the pair by the large windows. "Director Shepard."

"Special Agent Gibbs, this is Roy Carver, Homeland Security."

Carver stuck his hand out to shake, and knowing his manners for the guest—yeah he did have some manners that he followed—he shook his hand in return. Though he was agreeing with Mike and knew he was in the presence of a snake.

"Mr. Carver is here in relation to a suspect we're holding."

"Nikolai Puchenko."

"I'd like you to transfer him into Mr. Carver's custody."

He looked between the two. "Why?" His manners only went so far.

"He's working for us," Carver said, and wasn't that bull if he ever heard it. "He's providing valuable Intel on the arms trade among terrorist groups in Eastern Europe."

"Was he working for you when he killed a sailor yesterday?"

"I read the preliminary autopsy report on that, Agent Gibbs. Seems there's a lack of evidence linking Puchenko to the crime."

"He was carrying an illegal firearm."

"Not connected to the shooting."

"Yet."

"Well, find evidence that proves he was involved in any serious criminal activity and I promise I'll hand him right back to you."

Jenny stared at him with her director face and he really hated it. Hated even more the fact that he didn't have anything to stop this Carver guy from taking his suspect. "Do we have anything yet, Agent Gibbs?"

"We will."

"Until we do," she said slowly, "I'm releasing him to Homeland Security."

He looked away from the two and looked at Mike, who as expected didn't look happy with the order. He wasn't either, but he didn't have that disappearing bullet, so he couldn't hold Puchenko. So, looking away, he ordered, "Ziva, get Puchenko."

Gibbs made his way to sit at his desk while Carver talked to Jenny and Mike left to go talk to Tony, and it wasn't long before Ziva came back with Puchenko and the lawyer. She uncuffed him while Jenny had Carver sign the custody transfer forms that he used his desk as a surface to write on.

Mike straightened his suit from beside Tony's desk and Gibbs' watched him approach Jenny from his position. "Director…" Jenny faced Mike, "may I draw your attention to an NIS case code name Sunburst. Which dealt with serious allegations of arms smuggling by this man Nikolai Puchenko."

"I'm aware of the case, Mr. Franks."

Carver had straightened and turned his focus to Mike at the name Sunburst and cut in. "As I recall, the file was lost, Mike."

"I made a copy, Roy."

That obviously threw Carver off as he stared at Mike silently before speaking. "Jack Vale was the key witness. He's dead. You don't have anyone to testify."

"I was the case agent. I'll testify."

Gibbs hid his smirk. "Serious enough charges for you, Director Shepard?"

Jenny looked to Ziva who had silently made her way behind Nikolai during the talk, and nodded. "Take him back into custody." Tony got up to help Ziva with a now agitated Nikolai as Jenny took the form back from Carver. "I'm sorry Mr. Carver but NCIS is not through with this man."

"Homeland Security looks forward to reviewing the file."

Marty Allen sort of lunge forward a bit to be closer to them, though he pointed and addressed Gibbs. "This is an outrage. I strongly protest your department's treatment of my client."

Yeah, and he strongly protested the fact that he had to deal with lawyers, but you didn't see him complain. Instead, he inwardly rolled his eyes and jerked his head at Tony and Ziva to get them moving on escorting the arms dealer away. Though Puchenko didn't go quietly.

He started screaming in Russian and Gibbs stood at the threat to walk around to Mike.

Jenny watched the man get dragged away. "What did he just say?"

"He said you're a dead man." Gibbs stared at Mike. "Mike."

"Well, Mr. Carver, I believe that's all you need here. I'll escort you out."

"No need, I know my way out." And giving Mike one last look, Carver left and Jenny followed after.

"Um…what did I miss?"

The two men left looked at Tim who was holding a few papers and frowning. "We got a threat."

"…While I was gone?"

"Yeah."

Mike went to go sit in his chair while Tim moved to his own desk, still frowning in confusion. "What happened?"

"Nothing," Mike said at the same time Gibbs said, "Puchenko made a threat on Mike."

"I thought he was in one of the interrogation rooms."

"Don't worry about it. You got everything?" Tim nodded as he typed a few things on his computer and brought up the pictures of Arkady and then came over to join him, just as Ziva and Tony came back. So he gathered them round. "We're taking Puchenko's threat to kill Franks seriously, so right now this is who we have to worry about." He pointed to the first picture up. "McGee?"

"Arkady Mikhailovich Kobach, late 40s. Served with Puchenko in the Spetsnaz. That's the Soviet Special Forces. First Afghanistan then Chechnya. In 1990, Arkady executed three clerks in a payroll office because they could not pay his men. He then shot the colonel who came to arrest him. Been dealing arms ever since."

"I want a 24-hours protection detail. DiNozzo you're team leader."

"You're in safe hands, Mike," Tony assured as he looked at the more in depth information on Arkady.

"I've seen your hands, DiNozzo. They don't impress me." He addressed Gibbs but he wasn't hearing any of it. "I don't need baby-sitting, gunny. I can look after myself."

"After spending four months in that crap hole you call a home in Baja, I find that highly debatable."

Mike stared at him, like he was going to cave. Yeah right.

"Safe house, Boss?" Tony asked.

"Yep. Mine. Make yourself at home, Tony."

"Won't touch a thing, Boss."

The phone on Tim's desk rang before Tim picked it up. "McGee. We'll be right down. Boss, Ducky found the bullet."

They all made their way down to Autopsy where the freezer holding Vale's body was open and Vale was pulled halfway out. They all leaned against the closest table to the freezers while Gibbs stood next to the body, and Ducky was across the room, taking off his lab coat.

"It's fascinating where bullets can end up," he said as he made his back to the team. "I once found a .22 caliber slug in a woman's knee and she'd been shot in the chest. See, the bullet entered her heart, was pumped down through the aorta into the iliac and on down into the femoral artery. Extraordinary," he smiled and looked at Gibbs' agents and Mike who stared back at Ducky.

"So the missing bullet's in his knee?" Tony asked.

"No, no. Good heaves, no. That's much too easy, and anyway, it would have shown up on the x-rays."

Ziva asked, "So where is it?"

"I have no idea. None at all."

What the hell? He straightened. "You said you found it."

"Well, I have. I just don't know where. I can, however, tell you how. It was Abby who gave me the idea when she said that she would be sick to her stomach if she ever lost evidence. "Sick," that's the key word. So I had Abby run some tests of material I took from his esophagus and we found traces of protease pepsin along with all sorts of other things such as sulfides, oleic acid, polyphenols. But the smoking gun, so to speak, was the presence of triticum durum." He walked over in his enthusiasm to one of his screen that showed results from the test. They all continued to watch him.

"Pasta?"

"Specifically spaghetti cooked with garlic and olive oil. Spaghetti _aglio y olio, _as the Romans say. Very nice with a glass of Sangiovese. Anyway, anyway," he said as he walked back to the body, "when the bullet became lodged in his stomach, he became sick. What you might call projectile vomit."

"He puked up the bullet?"

"Yeah. Find the puke and you'll find the bullet."

Ziva's eyes widened as Tim finally spoke, "So you want us to look for a pile of dried-up vomit."

"Yes, and I'll need a generous sample so I can positively match it to what I found in the victim. Oh, and of course, the bullet."

"Ziva, McGee, get onto it."

"Well, uh, Boss, we have narrowed it down to a few city blocks."

Ziva spoke from beside Tim, her face scrunched up in disgust at her and Tim's task. "Vale must have still been on foot when he was shot or he would have gotten sick in the car."

"So maybe a parking garage or a parking lot. That narrows it down."

He nodded. "Go, go. Don't come back without the bullet." He was about to follow them out when he looked to where Mike had been and saw him gone. He turned to Tony. "Where is Mike?" Tony looked to where Mike had been before doing a circle as he looked around. "I thought you were supposed to be protecting him."

"I was," Tony said as he followed him out. "I mean, I… He was right here." They rode the elevator up. "Couldn't have gone far, Boss."

Gibbs nearly snorted at that. Tony didn't know Mike. "Don't count on it."

"Franks?" Tony called as he kept on walking, Gibbs stopping when he looked at the door and an idea came to him. "Franks?"

Gibbs walked around, smelling the smoke, and found Mike tucked in a corner behind the stairs with a cigarette. "Couldn't find a broom closet," he explained before putting it out under his shoe.

He got closer to his former boss so their conversation wasn't heard. "How do you know Carver?"

"Just another spook from the old days that made my job difficult."

"You never mentioned you made a backup copy of that file." The information would have been helpful to know when he had been trying to get Jenny to not make him hand over Puchenko to Carver.

"It was a long time ago, Probie."

"Is it enough?"

"Should do the trick."

"What's in it?"

Mike stared at him. "Where'd you lean to be such a pain in the ass?"

"Working with you. There's a lot of people who want to see what's in that file, Mike."

"Guess they're going to be disappointed. There's nothing to see. But there's plenty to listen to."

"…Vale was wearing a wire?"

Mike nodded as he walked away a bit to put distance between them. "And I was on the other end of it listening to every word. Dubbed a copy. Tell what I heard, audiotape backs me up and everybody's happy except for Nikolai."

"Where's the tape?"

"Safe."

"How safe?"

He sighed. "Safe enough that no one's found it for 15 years. This director, she's okay, I guess, but I get the feeling that you've been working under her a little too long."

"The world's changing, Mike."

"All the lines are getting blurred, Probie. Hard for a man not to step over them. And you can call off this protection detail." Gibbs shook his head as he leaned back against the wall. "I can take care of myself just fine."

"No, I can't do that, Mike. All you have to be is half a second slower and you're dead."

"Or the other guy just has to be a half-second faster just like it's always been. I'll be fine."

"I'm not gonna do it."

Tony peeked around the corner, his eyes on Mike, before sighing and yelling, "I found him, Boss!"

Mike smiled amused. "Nice work, DiNozzo."

Tony paused before looking at Gibbs who smirked and watched Tony nervously laugh.

* * *

Turned out the safe house was compromised and Mike disappeared, Tony left with a bump on the back of the head. Thankfully, when they got back and by the time Gibbs got done talking to Jenny and Carver, Tim and Ziva got back with the bullet.

Grabbing it once Abby was done with it, he made his way to the interrogation room and sat across from Puchenko and Allen, who was looking a little arrogant. But…he was a lawyer.

"I demand you release my client, Agent Gibbs. You've got no grounds to hold him. Your key witness has disappeared. You have no case."

"Oh, you're right I don't have a case against your client for arms dealing." He smirked as heheld up the little jar the bullet was resting. "But I do have one for murder."

Satisfaction ran through him when both men suddenly looked as if the floor had been ripped out from under them and starting whispering to each other as they leaned close. Gibbs looked back at the mirror to let the others know that he was proud of them for getting him what he needed.

He eventually turned back to Puchenko as he needed information that would get him to his former boss. "Nikolai, you have a choice. You can spend the rest of your life in prison, or you can cut a deal. And you can tell me where to find your friend, Arkady."

* * *

They quickly found where Mike was, but Gibbs was a bit thrown with how easily Mike shot Arkady, after he had lowered his gun. After he made sure Ziva and Tony had control of the scene, he followed Mike out to the front of the hotel and leaned against the wall like Mike.

"You set yourself up as bait."

"The bigger the bait, the bigger the fish you catch. Arkady never would have got to court, Probie, and you know it. Carver or whoever else is pulling the strings would have made sure of that. Another crappy deal. More innocent people die." He paused before talking again. "If you think I'm not going to sleep well tonight because of what I just did, then you're wrong. I'm going to sleep like a baby…because Arkady Kobach was a scary S.O.B. who kept me awake nights for the past 15 years."

"Someone else will take his place."

Mike chuckled before pushing himself off the wall. "That's your problem, Probie." He handed him the beer and Gibbs took it. "I got my guy."

He turned and was about to leave before Gibbs remembered about the tape. "Hey. You got that audio tape?"

Mike handed it over with a smile. "Beer's getting warm," he said before he turned and started walking away, and Gibbs was about to head back into the hotel bar when Mike called back. "And get rid of that damn moustache, Probie! It's not you!"

Chuckling, he got back to work.

* * *

Gibbs was at home, getting ready for his date with Tim that Tim agreed to. The case was closed, Nikolai was off to prison, his paperwork was done and he had gladly handed the tape over to Carver when he asked for it. Yeah, he knew there wasn't anything but Mexican folkdance music on the tape, but Carver didn't know that. But he would soon.

He looked at himself in the mirror, remembering Mike's words and the team's reactions to his moustache, and making a decision, he grabbed his razor.

The hair was gone in a few easy strokes, and when he rinsed his face, for the first time, he felt like…himself again. He completely felt like himself for the first time since he got his memory back. He felt balanced.

Heading over to Tim and Ziva's apartment, he couldn't keep the smile off his face. It was amazing what a removal of a moustache could do. He headed up to the apartment and knocked.

"Coming!"

Gibbs listened to the approaching footsteps and the door opened to present Tim, who gasped in surprise. "Oh God," he whispered as he stared at him, Tim's eyes raking his face.

He took his time to look Tim from head to toe, liking what he saw, and looked back up at Tim's face to see the brightest smile aimed his way. Gibbs didn't know how long it's been since he'd seen that bright smile, but he knew none of Tim's smile had been this bright, loving, and happy since the explosion. So…months. Too damn long.

"Hello Tim."

"Jethro," Tim whispered, still smiling.

Gibbs smiled back, and offered his hand to Tim, squeezing the soft pale hand once it rested in his hand. Things were going to be good. It would still take time, but it was going to be okay.

**The End.**

* * *

**A/N: I like to think that Gibbs shaving off that damn moustache is like the finally step to get things back to the way they were. Because, like Tony said, the moustache isn't Gibbs.**

**The McGee's Keeper Series will be taking a pause for the rest of December as I'm kind of being hit by holiday ideas. "All You Need Is Faith" being one of them, along with a few Harry Potter fics, and a surprise NCIS fic that I've already written but won't post till Christmas. I just hope ya'll like it. :)**

**PLEASE REVIEW! They are appreciated.**


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